Why did John include this as one of only 7 miracles he chose to record in his gospel? We discover John's point that miracles were actually signs to point people to Jesus and an invitation to place faith in Him. Jesus did not want people getting worked up about miracles, in fact he discouraged it. What He wanted was for people to discover the real miracle of eternal life through faith in Him. No matter what God in His grace chooses to do for our benefit in this life, nothing can compare to what He has already done in Jesus for our eternal benefit. We need to be careful that nothing distracts us from our focus on the person of Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord.
The Healing of the Nobleman’s Son
John 4:43-54
23/08/09
Introduction
I know that a lot of people were away last weekend when Chris and Trevor were here. I trust for those who were here that you enjoyed learning more about the subject of Living Water that John speaks about in his gospel. It is a real challenge for us to think about not only whether we have received that living water, but whether we are receiving it. Or are we like the people of
We are moving on now in our journey through the gospel of John, to look at the story of the healing of the nobleman’s son, recorded in John 4:43-54. Jesus has spent time with the people of Sychar in
John 4:43-54
43 After the two days he left for
46 Once more he visited Cana in
48 “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
49 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
50 Jesus replied, “You may go. Your son will live.”
The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 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.”
53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and all his household believed.
54 This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to
Why Does John Include This Story?
On Wednesday nights we are studying the book of Colossians together, and I’m really enjoying that! One of the things that has excited me is the wonderful way that the truths expressed in that letter complement the truths being expressed here in the gospel of John. Of course we should expect that to be the case since the one Author has inspired both texts. I want to spend some time before we study this story looking at the inspiration of Scripture as a foundation so that we’re ready to ask some questions and discover some truths that will be really important.
Understanding the Inspiration of Scripture
I remember when I was at
20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
These verses affirm the divine authorship of the Bible. It is not an invention of human authors nor is it merely their best efforts to remember what they saw and heard. It is exactly as God intended according to His will, put into effect through His Spirit working through human agents.
However in my naïveté I did not yet fully appreciate just how wonderfully intricate this process actually was. I guess I had in the back of my mind images of a person being taken over by an external force that compels them to do certain things in certain ways. Their normal personality and self-will is suspended while this other entity maintains control.
While this may be the method of operation for the spiritual forces of darkness, it should not be confused with the methods of Almighty God. His ways are so far above theirs that no comparison is possible. Their ways are always a shallow counterfeit of His ways.
I want you to understand that when it talks about men speaking from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, it is not talking about some sort of trance or event where their minds have been taken over. Rather, it is God working in cooperation with them in making sure that what is said and written is exactly as He wants it to be.
Everything about what sort of people they were, what they saw and heard, what they remembered, how they understood it, how they put it into words – all of that took place exactly as God willed. He just didn’t take over someone for a while to act as a human spokesman, He shaped everything so that person was equipped and ready to do that task under the Spirit’s control.
In the same way there are good works planned in advance for us to do (Eph. 2:10). God works in us and in our circumstances to prepare us to do them and to help us to do them.
The only difference is that as people who are not yet perfect, we make mistakes and we do not fully discern or submit to the Spirit’s control. The same was true for the Biblical authors – the Bible is very honest about that. Yet in His grace God made sure that when it came to the recording of Scripture, their normal human frailties that might have otherwise corrupted the text were kept from doing so.
As you get to know the Bible better you begin to appreciate more and more the way that God shaped each of the human authors and how their personalities and experiences in turn shaped how they wrote and spoke. We must not lose sight of that, nor must we lose sight of the fact that “All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim 3:16). The human minds were active and the Spirit of God was active in producing Scripture. It is not one without the other. It is the mystery of God’s sovereign will working together with human freedom.
So when you hear me talking about the human author or asking questions about the thoughts and motives of those authors, don’t be concerned that I’m treating Scripture like a merely human writing. I’m not and it’s not!
So…!
Looking at the Context of the Story
Today I want to ask the question “Why did John include this story in his gospel?”. What is it that John wants us to understand from this story? How did he want his readers to respond?
Let’s remember that John was writing this as an account which people would read not in little chunks here and there, but right through. This story is part of a bigger story, and without understanding that bigger story we can’t understand this part of it. The story has a context.
When we look at context we want to understand first of all the historical context. What was going on at the time? Where did the events take place? What sort of people were involved? Understanding as much as we can about the events themselves is a great way to grow in our understanding of God is doing in that situation that we can learn from.
The next thing we look at is the literary context. The Biblical authors describe events differently on purpose. They place stories in different sequences because they are not fussing about being historians, they are painting a picture of Jesus. They choose different stories in order to show Jesus to us, because as John says later on in his book, there simply isn’t enough time or paper to record everything He said and did! This is all exactly as God intended it to be – every word comes from Him.
The Literary Context of John’s Gospel: Signs are for direction, they’re not the attraction!
When John describes the miracles of Jesus, his main focus is to look at the effect they had in producing faith. The miracle at
John 2:11
11 This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in
At the end of chapter 2 we read that Jesus did many miracles in
Imagine going on a world trip and then coming home with a whole stack of photo’s. You organise them into a nice powerpoint presentation, set up the projector and screen and invite a whole bunch of family and friends around to show and tell them about your trip. Everyone’s quite excited because they know how many great locations you visited.
So the lights are dimmed, the popcorn handed out and the first photo comes up on the screen – it’s a picture of the sign pointing the way to the
It doesn’t really matter what colour a sign is, or how big it is, as long as it does it’s job. It’s job is to point people in a direction, warn them of danger or give them information.
The point of Jesus’ miracles was to signify His divine nature. He was someone unlike any other human that had ever lived. Many of the Samaritans had already figured this out simply by listening to Him as he shared with them over two days.
Let’s look again at what happens afterward…
John 4:43-48
43 After the two days he left for
46 Once more he visited Cana in
48 “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
So when Jesus arrives in his home region he visits
Galilee was administered for the Romans by Herod, and one of his officials who has a son near death hears that Jesus is in
Is this man interested in Jesus? No, he’s interested in his son, and he hopes that Jesus can help him.
He needs help, and I suspect that he would turn to anyone or anything that could save his son.
Jesus’ response is pretty amazing.
“Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders you will never believe.”
Jesus seems to think that people believing in Him is more important than the wonder He is being asked to perform.
Jesus has no interest in becoming a travelling freak show for the excitement and entertainment of the adoring public. You can imagine if Jesus agreed to go to
We read from verse 50…
“The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 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.”
53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and all his household believed.
54 This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to
What is the miracle here? A sick boy got better, healed by a word from Jesus from 20 miles away. That’s impressive. The real miracle though, was that a whole household came to faith in Jesus. That’s what mattered to Jesus, and it’s what mattered to John as he tells this story.
Skip ahead with me to chapter 20 of John’s gospel. We’re going to remind ourselves of the key them of the book as we read about the risen Jesus’ encounter with Thomas, who has not yet seen Him nor is he convinced of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
John 20:24-31
24 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
30 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
In this situation, much like with the nobleman of chapter 4, Thomas cannot believe until he has seen a sign. In Thomas’ case it is the marks of the nails and spear on Jesus’ body that will convince Him that Jesus really is the risen Saviour of the world. Jesus graciously provides him with this sign, but then tells him to stop doubting! “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Jesus tells him.
John chooses this point to tell his readers why he has written this gospel – so that we might “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”.
That’s the real miracle – eternal life through Jesus Christ. No healings or anything else seen or experienced in this life can compare to eternity with Christ in the next. That’s the miracle that God wants to perform again and again and again!
Salvation – The Real Miracle
There is a real danger that people can become like many of the Jews of Jesus’ day, and just be looking for more miracles to keep us amazed and to give us the help we want from God, as though God is our servant whose job is to keep us safe and healthy and wealthy! Paul responds to this sort of attitude when he says to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1:22-24
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
In Romans 10:14 Paul asks these questions: “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”
What is God’s chosen method of producing the miracle of eternal life? It is through the proclamation of the gospel – telling people the truth about Jesus. It’s not through “signs and wonders”, but through the good news about Jesus Christ.
But having said that, our God is a very gracious God. Sometimes, just like Thomas and the nobleman, our own doubts or concerns are uppermost in our minds need to be dealt with in order for faith to flourish.
Jesus did that for both these men. He still does it today.
Yes, it should be enough for people to hear the gospel and respond in faith. Yes, that is the way that God has set forth as His pattern for bringing about salvation. Yes, that is what Jesus described as the way of blessing.
But sometimes God does produce powerful signs in the lives of people to help them along.
Ari told an amusing story on Wednesday night that he’d heard in
I’ve heard many other stories of signs that have helped people come to faith in Jesus or built up people’s faith in Jesus, but that’s perhaps the wackiest!
We often get very excited by such things happening, and many of us sometimes wish that we had such experiences that we could hold on to, to show that there is something solid or spectacular behind what we believe.
Don’t make signs and wonders into an idol. Don’t look for more signs, believe in Jesus!
That’s what Jesus taught, and it’s what the Bible emphasises.
What do we need to do as a result of today’s message?
· Worship Christ alone. Instead of looking for what God can do for us, let’s focus on what He has done for us in Jesus. The only right response is for us to live for Him.
· Reaffirm our commitment to preaching the gospel. It is God’s established method of producing salvation by faith.
· Pray that people may be saved by believing the gospel.
· Pray that God by His grace will provide whatever other signs will help people come to that point of faith in Jesus.
· Be prepared to do whatever the Spirit leads you to do, even though it might not make a lot of sense to you at the time.
· Be excited by the miraculous things God does, but never lose sight of the real miracle of salvation or the supremacy of Jesus.
[1]All Scriptures taken from The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment