After two days he left
for Galilee. (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honour in
his own country.) When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They
had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also
had been there.
John 4:43-45
●
Jesus comes home, having spent a couple of days in
Samaria where “many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him” (John
4:39) and “urged him to stay with them” (John 4:40).
●
Before that, he had been to Jerusalem where many saw
Jesus perform miracles and were impressed with him.
●
Jesus was a success overseas, but how would he fare
back home?
●
Verse 43: Now
Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honour in his own country.
●
And yet the very next verse reads: The Galileans
welcomed him.
●
Was Jesus wrong in his prediction that he would be
ignored back in his hometown?
●
Jesus is helping us to understand the kind of response
he received in Galilee. His friends were not welcoming him home as a prophet -
much less as God’s chosen king. They were welcoming a pop star.
●
Verse 45 tells us: They had seen all that he had done
in Jerusalem - meaning they saw the miracles he did (John 2:23). The miracles
impressed them greatly and yet Jesus is telling us that isn’t the response he
is looking for. If anything, Jesus is saying that miracles can lead to the
wrong response.
●
Well, why then did Jesus do those miracles in Jerusalem
if he didn’t want this sort of attention? To reveal our hearts, for one.
But another, to get us to pay attention to what Jesus is saying about himself. Jesus’ works are there to get us to pay attention to his words. His miracles are there to authenticate his message.
But another, to get us to pay attention to what Jesus is saying about himself. Jesus’ works are there to get us to pay attention to his words. His miracles are there to authenticate his message.
Once more he visited
Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a
certain royal official whose son lay sick in Capernaum. When this man heard
that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to
come and heal his son, who was close to death.
John 4:46-47
●
This man was desperate. He wants Jesus to do something
for him that he could not possibly do himself: He wants Jesus to heal his son.
●
Verse 46 tells us he is a royal official. This man was
powerful. He had money. He had a big house with servants tending to his every
need. But in verse 47, the rich royal statesman begs Jesus for his help.
Imagine a powerful businessman in an Italian suit falling to the ground before
Jesus. He is begging Jesus for his help.
●
This man is willing to travel an entire day’s journey
to Galilee because he obviously loves his son; because no amount of money or
power he has can help save his son from death. He humbles himself before Jesus.
●
And yet what does Jesus do next? He rebukes him.
“Unless you people see
miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
John 4:48
●
It sounds harsh but notice that Jesus is addressing the
same response he got earlier from the Galileans. “You people,” he says. “Unless
you people see miracles, you will never believe.”
●
But Jesus is also speaking to the man begging him for
help. To the royal official, it doesn’t matter whether Jesus is the Christ;
whether he is the Son of God or some kind of magician. This man is desperate.
He is willing to try anything: doctors, priests, voodoo, whatever. Anything as
long as it works. He will try everything as long as his son is saved.
●
Now that’s truly loving of this man as a father to be
willing to do anything and everything for his son. But despite his sincerity -
I have no doubt that he is sincere and humble in his request - he really
doesn’t care who Jesus is. He just wants the miracle. He just wants the
results.
●
You see, here is an example of the best of motivations
leading to the worst of conclusions. If
God is only there to meet my needs, then God is not God; then I am God. God is
just a means towards my own ends.
●
But to the man’s credit. He persists in humbling
himself before Jesus and Jesus responds in an unexpected way. Instead of
responding with a miracle, Jesus gives the man a promise.
The royal official said,
“Sir, come down before my child dies.”
Jesus replied, “You may
go. Your son with live.”
The man took Jesus at
his word and departed.
John 4:49-51
●
Remember that what the man wants Jesus to do is to go
with him. Verse 47: He begged Jesus to
come. And in verse 49, he says, “Sir, come
down before my child dies.”
●
But Jesus doesn’t go with him. If anything, he tells
the man to leave. “You may go,” Jesus says. But Jesus doesn’t send him away
empty handed. He gives him a promise: “Your son will live.”
●
The man took Jesus at his word. Literally, he trusted
the word and left. “Your son will live,” Jesus said. Jesus’ word was enough as
a guarantee.
●
It wasn’t what he expected, of course. He wanted Jesus
to come with him. He wanted Jesus to do something. Instead what he got was a
promise.
●
It was a whole day’s journey back home. I’m sure he was
worried. What if his son died while he was away? Should he have tried harder to
convince Jesus? Should he have offered Jesus money or forced him to come with
him?
●
The reason I say that is because it’s obvious from the
very next verse that this man was not expecting the news he got along the way.
While he was still on
his way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he
inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “The fever
left him yesterday at the seventh hour.”
Then the father realised
that this was the exact time at which Jesus said, “Your son will live.” So he
and all his household believed.
John 4:51-53
●
The precise moment at which Jesus gave his word, the
miracle happened. The official’s son was instantly healed.
●
Now he didn’t get to see it. The man was miles and
miles away from home but it still the miracle happened.
●
It is important to understand what did not happen. It
wasn’t the case that this guy really, really, really believed in the miracle
and therefore it worked. It wasn’t the case that this guy had enough faith in
order for his son to be healed. That’s nonsense and the text tells us why it’s
nonsense.
●
How do we know that? Well, his son was not healed
because of his sincerity. Jesus rebuked him. His son was not healed because -
and we need to get this straight - he went home seemingly empty-handed. No, the
son was healed because Jesus gave this man his word.
●
The point is: the miracle was independent of the man’s
faith or belief or sincerity. The miracle depended entirely on Jesus’ promise -
“Your son will live”. The point is: the man did not see the miracle and
therefore could not put his trust in the miracle. He went away trusting in the
promise. That was the turning point.
●
Verse 53: So he
and all his household believed.
●
From that moment, Jesus was no longer a miracle healer.
Jesus was someone who kept his word. The miracles authenticated the message.
The works proved the truthfulness of Jesus’ words.
This was the second
miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.
John 4:54
●
Why does the chapter conclude by telling us this is the
second sign? Didn’t Jesus do many, many other signs in Jerusalem? He definitely
did more than just two miracles. Why then does John call this the second sign?
●
If you read through John’s gospel, you find seven major
signs or miracles recorded in the book around which the whole account is
structured. And with each of these signs, John reveals an important lesson
about who Jesus is. There is something peculiar about the miracle John chooses
to highlight in each instance; something that tells us who Jesus really is.
●
In this miracle, we see a father begging Jesus for the
life of his son. He has money, influence and power but to this man, his
greatest possession is his son. He loves his son. He is willing to do anything
for the sake of his son.
●
The reason this account is so important in John’s
gospel is because it shows us something of God’s love as a Father for his Son.
Look across the page to John 5:20.
For the Father loves the
Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even
greater things than these. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives
them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.
John 5:20-21
●
What does Jesus say to the man again in verse 50? Your
son will live. Jesus has the authority to say that because of who he is. He is
the Son to whom God the Father gives life. He is the Son who raises the dead.
●
But also, verse 22 tells us, he is the Son who judges
the living and the dead.
Moreover, the Father
judges no one, but has entrusted all judgement to the Son, that all may honour
the Son just as they honour the Father. He who does not honour the Son does not
honour the Father, who sent him.
John 5:22-23
●
What was the issue with the Galileans again? Honour. “A
prophet has no honour in his own country.” Oh, they might see Jesus as a pop
star; as a miracle-worker. But Jesus is saying, they reject him as God’s Son.
In doing so, they reject God who is Jesus’ Father. “He who does not honour the
Son does not honour the Father, who sent him.”
●
What the Galileans did in having a big surprise party
for Jesus when he got home was not honour. It was a smokescreen. Similarly for
us, it is entirely possible to make a big deal about Jesus while rejecting him
in our hearts. It is possible to do that with Christmas - to make a big fuss
about the turkey, the nativity play and the presents in an attempt to divert
attention away from the fact that we don’t want Jesus ruling over our lives.
●
Jesus says to them, “Unless you see miracles, you
people will never believe.” But he says the same to the royal official. For
some of us, our problem might not be making too big a deal of Jesus. It’s the
opposite: our Jesus too small. He is a means towards an end. We go to Jesus driven
by our desperation, our wants, our anxieties. If that’s you, Jesus offers
something better than a quick-fix. He offers himself.
●
If you asked the royal official what Jesus gave him, he
would say, “He gave me my son back.” It wasn’t healing. It wasn’t money or
power - all that was meaningless. It was his most precious love: his son.
●
On the cross, God gave us his most valuable possession:
his Son. God’s son dies on the cross. Unlike the royal official who could do
nothing to save his son, God the Father sent his Son to the cross to save us.
Jesus died to take our sin, to take our dishonour, to take our death - so that
we will live, so that will be glorified, so that we will be justified. He dies
so that we live.
●
I wonder if you have ever been as desperate as this
official? Have you ever felt so powerless, so useless, so desperate for God’s
help?
●
Another gospel writer, Matthew, tells us that when
Jesus was on the cross - when he was helpless and dying on the cross - people
were gathering around him saying, “Come down!” They wanted Jesus to prove he
was the Son of God by coming down from the cross.
“Come down from the
cross, if you are the Son of God!”
In the same way the
chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved
others,” they said, “but he can’t save others! He is the king of Israel! Let
him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.”
Matthew 27:40-42
●
They thought Jesus was helpless. He couldn’t come down
from the cross (Greek: kathebe - the
same thing the official asked Jesus to do - to “come down” to Capernaum)
●
But the truth is: in order to save us, he couldn’t come
down. In order to save us he couldn’t save himself. In order to give us life,
the Son of God had to die.
●
That’s the guarantee Jesus gives us. When we come to
him in prayer and say, “Help me!” or “Save me!” how do we know with absolute
certainty that God will answer that prayer? Because God did not save his Son on
the cross. That’s the certainty Christians have in Jesus. We look at the cross.
He hear Jesus say, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” and we know
because Jesus was forsaken, I will never be forsaken. Because Jesus died, I
will never die. By his wounds we are healed. Because he was condemned, there is
now no condemnation for those we are in Christ.
●
Because the Son dies, we can now be made alive as sons
and daughters of God.
The mystery of the cross
I cannot comprehend
The agonies of Calvary
You the perfect Holy One,
crushed Your Son
Who drank the bitter cup
reserved for me
Your blood has washed
away my sin
Jesus, thank You
The Father’s wrath
completely satisfied
Jesus, thank You
Once Your enemy, now
seated at Your table
Jesus, thank You
(“Jesus, Thank You” - Sovereign Grace Music)
No comments:
Post a Comment