One of the hard things that our family has been going through is my mom’s struggles with Alzheimer’s.  If you’ve had any experience with Alzheimer’s you know that it is a miserable disease - a slow progression towards death that is a process of watching someone you love slowly slip away - loosing more and more of who they are mentally - physically.

Which has been going on with us - with mom - for a number of years now and it seems that we’re getting towards the end of mom’s time with us here on earth.  And as I’ve been watching this disease take its toll on mom - in these past few months - I’ve been praying for God’s mercy upon her.  That God would take her.

Have you ever prayed a prayer like that?  That may seem a tad strange to some.

But I know that mom knows Jesus.  She is trusting Him as her Savior.  I have no doubts in my mind that mom will spend eternity with Him in Heaven.  I have no doubts that one day I will join her there.  All of which will be astoundingly better than here - especially for someone suffering with Alzheimer’s.

So, I’m praying for God’s mercy on mom.  Which is a prayer that God has not responded to by taking mom home. 

One of the issues that we struggle with - as we pray and go through life - is why God does what God does - and how often we wish He would explain it to us.  Just give us a clue.  Why someone is healed.  And why someone is not.

We are coming to John 4 - starting at verse 43.  We’re going to a meet a father who has a gravely ill son.  A father who wants Jesus to heal his son.  And we’re going to see how Jesus responds to this father and what that can mean for us as we often come to Jesus overwhelmed with what’s going on in our lives.

Coming to verse 43 we’re stepping into a sequence of events that we’ve been looking at over the past few Sundays.  A sequence of events in the early ministry of Jesus.  And - here at verse 43 - the background of where this conversation fits into that sequence of events.

Verse 43:  After the two days He - Jesus - departed for Galilee.  (For Jesus Himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.)  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.

Let’s pause.  What is going on here?  Looking at the map.  We’re looking at Galilee.  Jerusalem is down south.  Last Sunday we saw that Jesus had come north through Samaria where He’d a conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well just outside the town of Sychar.  Remember this?

This woman and the town’s folk come to believe in Jesus as THE Messiah.  They ask Him to stay and teach them.  Which He did.  He stays for 2 days.  More people believe in Him.  And now - after the two days He’s moving north again - departing for Galilee.

John - as he’s recording all this for us - John mentions that Jesus had said that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.  Let’s be clear on what that means.

Hometown as the word is being used here has to do with the area a person is from.  The fatherland.  The hood.  Jesus being from Nazareth - having family in Cana and other places in the area.  Hometown means that whole area of Galilee.  Jesus coming to His home turf - Galilee - isn’t about Jesus expecting to be honored.

John tells us that when Jesus arrived in Galilee He was welcomed.  Why?  Because a number of Galileans had been down in Jerusalem during the Passover Feast when Jesus was down there.  They’d seen what He’d done.  The cleaning out of the Temple and other things.

So to them Jesus is a kind of celebrity.  Welcoming Him is like rolling out the red carpet - killed the fatted calf - declared a holiday - speeches - marching bands - fireworks.  Why?  Because of what they’d seen Him do in Jerusalem.

Which may be welcoming.  But it isn’t honor.

Honor isn’t popularity.  Jesus’ being popular - if you recall from what we’ve looked at previously - Jesus’ popularity was leading to premature conflict with the Pharisees down in Jerusalem.  Jesus is wary of all that - getting away from all that - leaves Jerusalem.

Welcoming Jesus isn’t about Who Jesus is as a prophet - as the Son of God - as THE Messiah - what those in Samaria had come to believe about Him.  John writes in chapter one that Jesus “came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.”  (John 1:11)

There’s a difference between welcoming someone based on what we think about a person - our image of that person - what we want from that person - and receiving - or honoring - that person for Who they really are.  Are we together?

Let’s go on.  Verse 46:  So He came again to Cana in 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 see Him and asked Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

Looking again at the map.  Jesus comes to Cana.  Which John reminds us was where the wedding was when Jesus turned the water into wine.  Jesus’ first miraculous sign pointing to Him as the Messiah.  When Jesus gets to Cana the news apparently reached Capernaum.  Capernaum which is about 18 miles northeast of Cana.

In Capernaum there’s a man - an official.  The word “official” in Greek is “basilios” - which is a word that gives us the idea that his being an “official” probably has some association with royalty.  Probably with the court of Herod Antipas.  Herod Antipas who had authority over the region of Galilee.  So this man is probably a man of wealth, position, authority, influence, privilege - who works for the royal family.

John tells us that this man’s son is ill - nearing death.  The father - when he hears that Jesus is in Cana - the father makes this 18 mile journey and comes to see Jesus.

Let’s think about that for a moment.

Of this man is working for the Antipas administration its probably a pretty reasonable assumption that his version of being “religious” is more about doing the right things religiously - doing what’s politically popular - going through the motions of religion.  But he’s probably not too deeply concerned with what all that religion may mean to him personally or what is means to worship God as God expects us to worship Him or even who Jesus is - if indeed He is the Messiah.

We don’t know if the father had been down in Jerusalem.  But he has heard about Jesus.  He gets the idea that there is a miracle worker who’s just arrived in Cana.  And we can understand this father’s heart.  If that were our son that we deeply cared about - in desperation - and we’d tried a number of different remedies and doctors and methods - some of which we might never have imagined ourselves trying - why not try Jesus?

Are we together?  The father isn’t coming to Jesus because of who Jesus is but because of what the father hopes Jesus can do for his son.  He’s is in the welcoming crowd not an honoring believer.

Notice three things that John reveals to us about this father’s faith.

First:  The father saw limitations in what Jesus could do.  He asked Jesus to come to where his son was - back in Capernaum.  He has the understanding of Jesus that Jesus had to be physically present with his son in order for Jesus to heal his son.

It could be that he expects Jesus to perform some kind of incantation or mix up some kind of potion or do some kind of religious mumbo jumbo that’s going to heal his son.  That’s what healers do.  His thinking of Jesus is limited to his own understanding of what he thinks Jesus can do.

Second:  This father told Jesus how to do the healing miracle.  Come down to Capernaum and heal my son.  Which we can relate to.  How often do we tell God how He should respond to what we think the need is?

Third:  Which is really the bottom line of where this father is coming from.  Third - he saw Jesus as a means to get what he wanted not as THE Messiah to be worshipped.

We’re together?  The father’s faith - what he’s asking Jesus to do - is all based on the father’s perspective of what Jesus can and should do.

Let’s go on to how Jesus responds to this father’s request - verse 48:  So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”

“You” here in Greek is in the plural.  Like southern Greek.  “Unless y’all see signs and wonders y’all will not believe.”  

Jesus’ responses - admittedly Jesus’ response sounds really harsh - almost rude.  But, Jesus is responding to where this father - and everyone else listening to this exchange - the welcoming committee - Jesus responds to where they all are coming from.

“Signs” can be a mixed blessing.  They can be hugely helpful - playing a significant role in our faith.  Which is why John records them for us along with Jesus’ teaching and other things that Jesus did.  But - as Jesus is pointing out here - signs can have their limitations.

Signs point to things.  God’s power on display that signify God at work.  What should focus our faith on God.  But many people don’t want just a work of power to help their faith.  They just want the work of power.  Just give me the miracle - the healing.

Have you noticed that a number towns have a sign as we enter the town “Welcome to Fresno” for example.  Imagine if that sign were so impressive that people stopped to look at the sign.  Major traffic jams on 99.  People posing and taking pictures.  Posting of Facebook - we’re at the “Welcome to Fresno” sign.  And we never get to Fresno.

We become sign worshippers not Jesus followers.  Just give me the healing.  Just fix my life.  Just answer my prayer.

Signs - if interpreted properly - signs can lead us to faith.  But if interpreted improperly - signs can really mess up our faith - create a need within us for more signs.

Which is a trap that is so easy to fall in to.  If our faith is dependent on signs - if our ministry is based on healings and words of prophecy and miraculous workings of God - God doing signs and wonders in our midst - every Sunday at 11:00 a.m. and at the mid-week healing service - or whenever we pray and tell God what He should be doing - then if all that doesn’t happen - if God doesn’t perform on cue - then we have no basis for our ministry.  Our faith is in serious trouble.

What if God doesn’t bring a healing - or answer our prayer - the way we think He should and when we think He should?  Maybe God doesn’t care?  Maybe we should be angry at God - if indeed He really does exist?

If this father - or this crown that’s welcomed the miracle working celebrity - if this father needs a sign, a work of power - if his faith is based on what Jesus does for him then what’s going to happen when he comes up against the next difficulty and Jesus doesn’t perform for him the way he thinks Jesus should?  What’s going to happen to his faith then?

Jesus is blunt - maybe harsh - but honest.  “If you’re looking for signs and wonders y’all are going to miss out what all those signs and wonders are really pointing to.  Which is the need to believe.”  Believe what?  In Jesus.  Not just to welcome Him.  But to honor Him - to believe in Him for Who He is.

Verse 49:  The official said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

We’ve got to admire the persistence of this father.  “That’s great Jesus.  Appreciate whatever it is that you’re talking about.  But are you coming or not?”  

All this father cares about is that his son is healed.  Persuading Jesus to come with him.  Notice he pleads for “my child.”  It’s a different word in the Greek than in verse 47.  It has the idea of “my little boy.”  “Mi hijo.”  There’s a depth of endearment - of passion - here that we’re seeing in the father’s heart.  His son - his little boy is dying.

Jesus knows our greatest need is for us to trust Him.  If we’re trusting Jesus we can walk with Him through the worst of what life throws at us.  Valley of the shadow of death stuff.  Fear no evil.  Because You’re with me.  Trust that whatever comes God has it.  He’s in control.

Does the father understand that?  No.  Probably not.  Which is where most of us are.  Isn’t it?  His son is dying.  And whatever Jesus is talking about is just taking up valuable time.  Just using up oxygen.  Its a long 18 mile trek back to Capernaum.  We need to go.

Point being:  Way too often we’re missing the incredible forest that comes by faith in Jesus because we’re focused on the tree.  We can come with persistence and passion.  But are we open to Jesus meeting our real needs?  His way?  His timing?

Verse 50:  So Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.”

Notice that Jesus doesn’t go with the official.  Jesus stays in Cana and tells the official to go back to Capernaum where the son is.  And, matter of factly, Jesus tells him, “Your son will live.”  Literally, its in the present tense:  “Your son is living.”

No going.  No sign to see.  No potions or mumbo jumbo.  No laying on of hands.  Jesus is teaching that faith isn’t dependent on signs - what Jesus does - but Who Jesus is.

Going on in verse 50 - The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.  The official believes and goes. 

Let’s be careful.  Believes what?  John tells us.  He believed “the word that Jesus spoke to him.”  Your son lives.  Perhaps that his son has recovered.  Or at least is recovering.  Meaning out of mortal danger.

Why does he believe Jesus?  We don’t exactly know.  It may be that he thinks that Jesus has been given news about his son.  Or, maybe that Jesus has some supernatural knowledge about his son’s recovery.  We don’t really know.

Except we do know that he believed what Jesus said.  Which is not the same as believing in Jesus.  But it is a step in the right direction (pun intended).

Notice that the official is no longer asking Jesus to go to Capernaum - believing that Jesus being physically there was necessary for the healing.

Notice that he does leave.  Which is obedience to the command Jesus gave him,  “Go.”  He goes without the healer and without the sign.

We need to slow down and appreciate that.  Even though this official isn’t quite “there” yet in his faith - he does stop demanding of Jesus and he does start obeying.  There’s something in that for us.

Scott Grant - over at PBC - preaching on this passage - Scott Grant shares from Larry Crabb’s book “Inside Out.”

Larry Crabb tells of meeting a cheerful woman who was helped by one of his books after her husband abandoned her.  Crabb’s words, she told him, encouraged her that Christ was sufficient for everything she needed.

Crabb told the woman, “You have felt very encouraged by the truth that Christ is enough.  But help me understand exactly what you mean.  What is Christ enough for?”

“Oh, for everything I need,” the woman said with a smile.

“What do you need?”  Crabb said.  “What are you expecting the Lord to do?”

“Bring my husband back, of course.  My three little girls need a daddy.  And I need a husband.  I just know God will work in his heart to bring him back.  I don’t know when, but I know it will happen.”

When Crabb indicated that he knew of no biblical basis for her confidence, the woman’s mood abruptly changed.  “How can you even doubt it?”  She shot back.  “Do you think it’s been easy for me to be alone?  If God is as faithful as He says He is, then He’ll bring my husband back.  He must!” (1)

God tells us to ask.  And even to be persistent in our asking.  Ask for the healing of a child.  Ask for mercy on a loved one.  Ask for the return of a husband.  We can ask for a lot.  But demand nothing.

That’s hard for us.

We need to be willing to stop demanding signs - answers to prayer our way - and to obey what is that Jesus has commanded us - to follow Jesus… period.  It just might be possible that if Jesus doesn’t give us what we’re demanding then maybe it could be because He desires to do something greater than what we’re asking Him for.

Scott Grant says this:  “Closed hands, especially hands clenched in demand, can’t receive anything.” (2)

Its hard to receive what God has for us if we’re demanding something else.  The official - no longer making demands of Jesus - is coming to the place where he’s able to receive what he really needs from God.

Verse 51:  As he was going down - to Capernaum - 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, and all his household.

Three observations.

First - what the servants said.  Literally, “Your son is living.”  What echoes the words of Jesus.  “Your son is living.”  Same verb in Greek.  “Living.”  Which gives us an idea that this is more than just a coincidence.  Something unexplainably major has gone on here.

While the official is talking with Jesus in Cana the servants - back in Capernaum - not knowing what’s going on in Cana - the servants are astonished to see the sudden and miraculous recovery of the son.  Taken up in that experience.  Filled with joy.  Not waiting for their master to return - they head off towards Cana to tell him the good news.

Second - notice the timing of the healing.  The father asks when his son began to bet better.  The servants tell him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour.”  Which can be incredibly confusing.

If the son meant so much to the father why did he wait to the next day to head home?

In the Hebrew way of reckoning time the 7th hour would have been 1:00 p.m.  Capernaum being about 18 miles from Cana.  Walking, that would take about 6 hours.  2 hours by chariot.  Which is how an official would do the trip.  He could have been home by dinner.  If he meets the servants after sun down - for the Hebrews - technically 1:00 would have been yesterday.  In the Roman way of reckoning time the 7th hour would have been 7:00 p.m.  Meaning he might have waited until the next day to start for home.  

The bottom line is… we don’t know and its not really important anyway.  The point of telling us “when” is that the timing of the healing was “when” Jesus said, “Your son is living.”  Meaning that it was Jesus who healed the son without physically being present at the healing or having some kind of news that the son had been healed.  

Third - we need to see the response of the father.  When the father hears the news and the timing of the healing - the father puts all that together - light bulb moment - he realizes that it was Jesus Who did the healing. 

Notice the absence of a direct object.  Verse 53:  “He himself believed…”  Believed what?  There’s no mention of believing that if Jesus came He could heal his son.  There’s no mention of his believing in Jesus’ word.  Just, “He himself believed.” 

The point is that the father knew that Jesus didn’t need to be present to heal.  That Jesus wasn’t just hearing about something that had happened hours earlier and so dispensing information.  At that moment the father knew.  He believed in Jesus as the Messiah - His Savior

Then imagine what he told his servants - what he told the household when they got home.  He believes and his whole household believes.

Bottom line:  The son lives physically and the father now lives spiritually - and so do all who believe in Jesus the Christ - the Son of God.

Verse 54 - John’s footnote about signs.  Verse 54:  This is now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.  

Sign number one was… water to wine - also in Cana.  Sign number two is this healing.

We know - because we’ve read the other gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry that Jesus performed many more signs in Galilee and Judea - and other places.  That His popularity and reputation grew - His celebrity grew - as crowds of people kept pursuing Him because of the physical and spiritual healings that He did - the signs.  The revolutionary things that He taught.  His words.

They believed in Him - or at least followed Him - because of what He did or said.  What they expected from Him - demanded of Him.

98 times in this Gospel - multiple times per chapter - John writes about believing.  “Believing” is a huge deal for John.

John’s gives his reason - his theme for his gospel - 20:31.  Read it with me:  but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”

What does it mean to “believe”?

“To believe” translates the Greek word “pisteuo” - which has two basic meanings.  Both are important to John.

Meaning #1:  To acknowledge as true - an intellectual assent to the facts. 

What the father believed when he believed the word of Jesus.  “Your son is living.”  Jesus knows.  I don’t quite know how He knows what He knows.  But He’s the miracle worker so I’m going.  I believe what He says.  

Meaning #2 - the “that you may have life” part -  “to believe” - is about personal trust, our confidence in someone or something - the commitment we make in response to what we know to be true.  The response of the father when he realized just who Jesus is.  He and his household believing in Jesus THE Messiah.  Their Savior.

What do we really want from Jesus?  Most of us have a reasonable handle on the facts part of believing.  The history and truth part of what John writes.

A number of years back I did a funeral for a family.  For their son.  He was a good student - active in swimming and karate - played the piano - deeply loved by his parents and family.  A young boy who died of leukemia just 3 weeks before his 19th birthday.

How does someone move forward from that - believing?  What do we really want from Jesus? 

We need to stop demanding signs from Jesus.

I know this is hard.  All of us fall into this attitude.  Circumstances being what they are its understandable.  But we need to do an attitude check on what’s coming out of our heart.

If we’re whining and crying and stamping our feet and demanding that Jesus do things our way and disappointed in God and complaining if He doesn’t then that’s not faith.  That’s not believing.  That’s just pure sinful arrogance demanding that God operate on terms and ways that we understand.

We need to grow in our depending on Jesus.

Tom Landry - remember him?  Coach of the Dallas Cowboys - Christian brother in Christ - Tom Landry said:  “The job of a coach is to make men do what they don’t want to do, in order to achieve what they really want.” (3)

That’s Jesus.  Jesus puts us through circumstances and we don’t want to go there.  He makes us face things we don’t want to face.  He’s doing that to achieve in us and through us what we’ve wanted in our hearts all along.

When we choose to trust that we’re in the hands of the One who doesn’t always answer our prayers the way we expect, but in doing things His way He actually leads us into a greater awareness of Who He is, of His authority and power in the world and over life.

Our faith, as a result, actually becomes stronger and purer.  He’s growing us to follow Him through what may be even harder circumstances - but certainly even greater opportunities in life.

When we are finally willing to let go of what we want God to do for us and believe in the One the signs point to - God gives to us life - now and forever with Him - not on our terms - not the life we think we should have.  But the life that we need - the life that we desperately long for.

_________________________

1. Quoted by Scott Grant in his message:  “Something Better”

2. Quoted by Scott Grant in his message:  “Something Better”

3. Quoted by Ray Stedman in his message:  “Faith’s Encouragement”

General reference for this message:  “Faith’s Encouragement” - sermon shared by Ray Stedman from John 4:43-54, September 25, 1983 

General reference for this message:  “Something Better” - sermon shared by Scott Grant from John 4:43-54, October 20, 2013 

General Reference for this series:  Charles R. Swindoll, “Insights On John:  Swindoll’s New Testament Insights,”  Zondervan, 2010

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®  (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.