John 4:43- 54

[0:00] Are we good? Cool. Good morning, everyone. Like Dave said, I'll be preaching on chapter 6.! Bad joke, just kidding. Chapter 4. So for those of you who don't know me, my name is Kyle Spivey.

[0:18] I'm a member here. I'm privileged this morning to continue walking through the gospel of John. And this morning we're going to go through the second miracle, the sign and wonder that John has recorded in the book of, in his gospel.

[0:35] So I'm excited to walk through this, to kind of share what God's laid on my heart as we continue going through the gospel of John. So before we dive in, let's read the text and then we'll pray.

[0:50] So as we're reading this text, keep an eye out for people, places, things, what Jesus says, what the people say. So if you would, let's stand in honor of the Word of God.

[1:06] After two days he 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.

[1:18] For they too had gone to the feast. So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made water, wine. At Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went with him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

[1:35] 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.

[1:46] 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.

[1:59] And they said to him, yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him. The father knew this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, your son will live. And he himself believed in all his household.

[2:10] This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. So let's pray. You may be seated, but let's pray. God, we thank you this morning, an opportunity to study your word.

[2:24] God, an opportunity to see how you've recorded Christ's life here on earth through the book of John. God, it's been amazing to walk through these chapters to see the person of Jesus, who Jesus is and what he's done.

[2:42] Lord, as we walk through just chapter one, two, three, and we're coming to the end of four. God, it's been amazing to see the work of Christ and the heart of Christ. Lord, I pray that this morning you would be with me in the words that I'm going to share.

[2:57] God, that these would not be my words, but your words. God, that you would speak through me to those who are here this morning. God, that those who don't know you here would be convicted of their sin and their need for the Savior.

[3:12] The Savior that we talk about is Jesus Christ, our Lord, who did these things. And John writes this book so that we may believe in Jesus Christ and have life in his name.

[3:28] Lord, we thank you and we pray for the kids next door. God, as they study your word, God, that you would be with them as well. Lord, if we look at the ministry of Shoreline, we're amazed at the number of kids you've blessed us with.

[3:39] And Lord, I pray that you would be with them as they study your word, that they too would hear your word and be convicted of their sin and their need for a Savior. So Lord, we thank you for this morning.

[3:51] In your name I pray. Amen. So, like I said, you know, keep in mind the people, the places, the things, what's said. But what we're going to do is start with the last verse.

[4:02] Now this was the second sign that Jesus did when he came from Judea to Galilee. So if we take a second, John's taking us through the book of, his book, John's taking us through the book of John, sorry. We're going through the book of John.

[4:14] We see the first thing, a map. The map, right? So I like looking at the map when we, or maps studying the Bible, right? You look at the places of Israel, you see where Jesus was, how he traveled.

[4:28] And so you have like, right, you have Cana all the way up here, right there, the big circle. So that's where Jesus was when he turned water into wine. And then it says he goes from Cana to Jerusalem, right?

[4:42] Jerusalem is a place where he went to worship the Passover or to celebrate the Passover. So if you look at this, right, he's in Jerusalem. This is where we see the conversation with Nicodemus, right?

[4:54] We see the conversation where Jesus has done a lot of signs and wonders. There are these things that Jesus does that aren't recorded in the book of John, but are scattered throughout the other gospels. In the end of chapter 2, it says that many people believed, but Jesus did not entrust himself to them.

[5:10] Why? Because what they believed in were his signs and his wonders, not himself as a Messiah. So after a little bit, they go to the Judean countryside. They're baptizing.

[5:22] And then what's funny is at the beginning of chapter 3, it says Jesus gets word that the Pharisees get word that Jesus and his disciples are baptizing more than John.

[5:34] Why would that make sense? Why would that mean anything? Well, the Pharisees didn't like John. So if there's this new guy coming in who's doing more than John, they're definitely not going to like him. So what does he do?

[5:46] Instead, to kind of avoid that controversy, avoid those arguments and, you know, the need for whatever needed to happen at that point, he goes back to Cana. In chapter 4, verse 3, it says they went back to Cana.

[6:00] So if you look at this, you say, oh, perfect. You go a straight line. Where are you going to go? You're going to go right through Samaria. But as we talked about the past two weeks, that's not normal, right? Jesus to go right through, to go through Samaria to Sychar, to a well right outside of Sychar, was not normal.

[6:19] Jesus continues to do things that break the bounds of what we would expect. He goes here, and this is where he first literally reveals himself as a Messiah.

[6:30] The woman says, we're waiting for the Messiah. And Jesus' response to her, I am. And Ian talked about that a couple weeks ago. Right? So Ian and Jim took us through these texts.

[6:41] We come to the text for today. Today, Jesus had proclaimed himself to the Jewish people in Jerusalem, to the Samaritans in Samaria. And now he comes back to Cana.

[6:52] Don't take these blue lines as the exact path that he took, but just what Microsoft PowerPoint allowed me to do. So what's cool here, right? We see Jesus taking his word, taking himself to the people in Jerusalem, the Jewish people first.

[7:07] Then to the Samaritans, and then the story here focuses on a Gentile official. So he goes from the Jewish people to the Samaritans to the end of the earth. You know, executing what he then tells his people to do at the end of Matthew's gospel in the Great Commission.

[7:23] So with that background, let's dive in. So what do we see here? Jesus comes from Cana to Jerusalem to Samaria, back to Cana.

[7:34] So what's interesting, and we see in verse 44, is that there's just like parentheses, this parenthetical in there. For Jesus himself was not, or testified that he had, that a prophet has no honor in his hometown.

[7:46] It's kind of a strange statement, but if you think about it, it kind of makes sense, right? We all grew up knowing somebody who we go back to them. We go back to a family reunion, go back to a neighborhood.

[7:56] And they're like, wait, you're a successful business person, businessman, businesswoman. Weren't you the person that dug in the mud and ate worms? Like, how does that make sense? Right?

[8:07] That's kind of our perspective. But what this is, is Jesus, you know, John saying that Jesus has recognized that he himself was not welcome to the people that knew him.

[8:17] So what's interesting, so this is used in the other Gospels as well, but what's interesting is some writers or some commentaries talk about this in relation to his time in Judea as well, not just his time in Nazareth.

[8:32] So as a, you know, born and raised or kind of raised in Nazareth, it would make sense that people are like, oh, he's a carpenter's son. We see that in some of the other Gospels where they're like, who is this guy? Why is he proclaiming these things?

[8:44] Why isn't he building a table? What he says, or what some commentators say is actually this could allude to the Pharisees' response to him at the beginning of chapter four. That they hear that he's doing something and they're ready to run him out.

[8:56] So it's, you know, either way, what this means is the people who do know him, as in the people in Nazareth, who should know him, the Pharisees reject him.

[9:07] So he continues on his mission. So Jesus comes to Galilee, right? It says he's not welcome in his hometown, but then the next statement is he's welcomed in Galilee, which is kind of interesting to see.

[9:20] But it kind of goes back to chapter two, where it says people believed in him because of what he said or what he had done. They not believed because of what he said. So John's Gospel, like I said, doesn't talk about all the other miracles they performed.

[9:36] But the Galileans obviously knew what he had done in Jerusalem. They were there. They had gone to the feast. And so that kind of sets the stage for the rest of this story.

[9:46] Okay. The Galileans believed in his presence rather than the promise, his word. We see the Samaritans believing in his word in 441.

[9:58] We see that they believed because of his word. The Jewish people believed because of what he had done. And that's the extent of that.

[10:09] The Samaritans believed because of his word. The Galileans welcomed him because of what he had done. And this kind of ties into what Jim had talked about last week. They had that notion of faith, that physical data evidence faith.

[10:23] They see something so it makes sense to them, but it doesn't go anything past that. And this is all tied to the purpose of the book, right? Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.

[10:37] 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. So that sets the stage, like I said, for the rest of the chapter.

[10:49] The kind of the story portion of it. So when we look at these verses, verse 46 through 54, who do we see? Jesus. That's the first answer to any Sunday school question.

[11:02] The official. He's a official in Capernaum. He's tied to Herod Anipas, who was the same Herod who beheaded John, because John called him out for marrying his own sister.

[11:15] What's interesting is, like Spurgeon and some other commentators say, well, if he's a official in Capernaum, he's tied to Herod. This is named Chusa, C-H-U-Z-A.

[11:27] We see in Luke 8 that there are women who take care and minister to the disciples. Joanna is one of those people, and it says that she is the husband of Chusa, who is Herod's household manager.

[11:41] So we see that this person could be this thing, this person, who is recognized in that, as we see at the end, he believes in not only he, but his entire family. Enough that this person, Joanna, his wife, goes and ministers to Jesus.

[11:55] We don't know that for sure, but it's one of the connections that we can make. So either way, the official, he's a Gentile. He's tied to a pretty bad person over in Capernaum.

[12:07] We see the sick son. We don't really know anything about him, but he's got a fever. It's pretty bad. And the medical stuff in that area couldn't do anything, so he had to travel to go see Jesus, to ask Jesus to do something, because he had heard that Jesus can do things, that he's doing these miracles.

[12:24] So he hears and he goes. We see the servants. They're pretty happy to come bring this word to the official, the official's household, and then the subtle everyone else that Jesus rebukes in 448.

[12:40] So what actually happens here? Why are we studying this book rather than the miracle where Jesus heals a centurion servant or raises Jairus' daughter? Both those are great, but John has this one.

[12:52] And I think we'll see a couple things that I've been convicted of and reminded of, so follow along. So when Jesus comes, he comes to Cana, and an official hears he's in town. So Capernaum is about 20 miles away.

[13:05] This is to scale. Capernaum is about 20 miles away. It's near the Sea of Galilee. It's predominantly uphill. This is a snapshot of the book, The One O'Clock Miracle.

[13:21] So what I say, if it doesn't make any sense, here's a concise version of it. It's really good. So the official goes 20 miles. He hears that Jesus is there.

[13:33] He's in Cana, so he travels. He doesn't send anybody. He goes, he's a man of some power, so he's probably imagined that Jesus, this guy, this prophet, this rabbi is going to be like, yeah, your son's sick.

[13:46] Hold on, let me drop everything. I'm going to come with you because you're important. And I think sometimes it's easy to have that perspective, but we'll see that that doesn't actually happen.

[13:58] So the man goes. He travels 20 miles. This is another picture of him. It looks pretty tough. It's a big hill. He's got a big bag. So he travels. Sorry, bad jokes. The official knew that his son needed to be healed.

[14:11] His son needed something, and only Jesus could provide it. So he goes, travels a difficult path to bring his needs before the foot of Christ. And in that way, says something that we should do as well, right?

[14:26] Christ has what we need. We should go to Christ because he has exactly what we need. But I don't think that's the main point here, right? It's not about taking our needs before Christ and taking our things before Christ because he cares.

[14:37] That's a true statement, and it is truth. But I think what we actually see here is something a bit more. It actually has to do with our response when we do those things, right?

[14:48] It's not Christ's response to us to give us what we need or what we want or what we ask for, but it's our response, and how do we respond to Christ when we take things to him? So the man comes and says, Jesus, heal my son.

[15:02] He pleads with him. And then in 448, he says, Jesus says, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. Okay, that's not what I would expect to hear.

[15:13] Jesus can do all these great things, but here he's rebuking somebody. The you that we see here, twice the you, unless you see signs, wonders, you will not believe, that's plural.

[15:25] So he's talking to the Galileans and the crowd that's there. So he's not rebuking the man as a person, but he's rebuking the people there because what they're doing is clinging on to his signs and wonders, and that's it.

[15:37] They want to show, they want to see something so that they can believe, right? Corinthians walked by faith, not by sight. The Galileans were walking by sight. And what's interesting, this sits in complete juxtaposition to 441.

[15:52] The Samaritans believed at his word. Jesus says, you're not going to believe unless you see signs and wonders. So the Samaritans, these half-breed Jews that Jim talked about last week, believed him at his word.

[16:06] They probably didn't know the signs and wonders because remember, the Samaritans and the Jewish people don't talk. So there probably wasn't this conversation when Jesus got there that there was any expectation that Jesus could do anything, but they believed him at his word.

[16:18] Remember, the woman goes back into town to say, here's the man that told me everything I ever did. Is he the Messiah? And they come out and they say, yes, we believe.

[16:29] We came because of what this woman said, but we believe because we heard. And then Jesus comes to Galilee and says this, you will not believe.

[16:40] So the question, do you believe his word even if you don't see it right now? Or maybe do you trust in his promises because they are his promises? The Samaritans believed Jesus at his word, yet the people in Cana could not without signs and wonders.

[16:55] The Samaritans walked by faith. The Galileans seemingly walked by sight. So what do you do? Do you wait for that sign, that wonder, that, you know, you say, God, if you put this on the wall, I'll do it.

[17:07] If you put this sign in the sky, I'm going to do this. Or do you hold fast to his word and stay truthful and trust in his promises? So how does the official respond?

[17:19] The official's response is to once again ask. If you look at the language in 49, the official said to him, sir, come down before my child dies.

[17:35] This is more of a pleading than just a, like, ask. He goes from saying, hey, come down and heal my son to saying, sir, in desperation, he's at his end.

[17:49] Yet he has a belief, he still has that belief, that trust, that Jesus can do what he's heard, right? He still has that kind of notion of faith. He's heard something, so he's asking for it. His faith in what he's heard calls him to keep asking Jesus to have compassion and come to heal him with his son.

[18:05] He's persistent and he knows that Jesus can heal. He hasn't been told no. Jesus didn't say, no, I'm not going to do that. Just go on. Good luck. He's persistent because he knows what Jesus can do, so he continues to ask.

[18:21] Maybe we don't hear anything when we ask, right? We say, hey, heal this, do this, help me here, but continue in prayer, continue in faith, knowing that Christ and our Heavenly Father hear, they care, he's listening, he desires you.

[18:42] A couple weeks ago during the Q&A, the Luzes kind of touched on this, right? A little bit. They may not know that. I didn't tell them I was going to read this or say this, but sorry, they're not here, so that's okay. So they had, for a long time, prayed about going into full-time ministry.

[18:58] They had felt called to full-time ministry. They had felt like God was putting them, like putting a passion in their heart to go do something. Oh, Brittany is here, sorry. So a couple years ago, they realized that maybe the door for international missions, which they thought was kind of what they were being called to, was closing.

[19:18] So they continued in prayer. They continued struggling with God, struggling with the word, where, where, where? And we see here, because of other situations that occur, they're not at the point where full-time ministry is an option.

[19:30] It is something that God opened the door for them. So in that no of that shutting that door, God provided a better yes. And I think we have that too, right?

[19:41] In our no's, when we hear God say no, or if we don't hear God say yes, we can be confident that he does have that better yes. And I'm not saying that to be like a cheesy catchphrase, in their no, there's a better yes. But if you think about it, what we've seen in the gospel of John thus far is that that yes is John 3.16.

[19:58] That yes is John 3.35. If you believe in Christ, you will have life and life in his name. And that is the ultimate yes. Christ has offered himself so that we can have eternal life, that we can have life forever.

[20:14] It's not about the forever part. Remember, like Kent talked about that. It's the life part. Christ promises life. And that is the ultimate yes. So Jesus responds, go, your son will live.

[20:30] Sir, please come with me before the man, before my son dies. Jesus says, go. Wait, but back in Jerusalem, you laid your hands on people, you healed people, you did this, you came down, you go.

[20:45] What? God, don't you know, Jesus, don't you know who I am? I'm the official. I'm the household manager of Herod. I think that's my response.

[20:56] When I don't hear the answer that I want, it's to question God. But why are you doing this? And I think that is kind of the key of this passage. The man believed.

[21:10] Why God? What's going on here? I know you're good. I know I trust in you. But why is this happening again? I think it would be much better if you did it this way. Why don't you give me your sock and I'll take it to my son and that way he can be healed.

[21:25] I need something. But that's not what happens. So as one commentator put it, and this is an old commentator, so I apologize for the language. English language, not bad language.

[21:36] Jesus would have him know that he could not dictate the divine method. Have we not been guilty of that many times? Absurd is it not? Then too, Jesus would teach the official the true essence of faith, complete reliance on the bare word of the Lord.

[21:52] No, I shall not go down, but go thy way. Thy son liveth. Art thou willing to rest upon my word alone? That was the final test. While a test, it was also a mercy.

[22:04] If the official would receive it, his mind would be immediately eased. Whereas had Jesus gone with him, as requested, would not the father's fear have increased every moment that they might be too late.

[22:16] God's way is always the best, and God's way is always the faith way. If we would know real peace, the end of carving anxiety, we must learn to accept and lean upon his sure word, not waiting for feeling or evidences.

[22:30] So Jesus in this moment, test the man's faith. Is he willing to rest on his word alone? The man believes, and he goes.

[22:42] Have we ever been in a situation like this, where you think you know what God needs to do, so you politely tell him? But God has reminded me with this text in the book of John as a whole.

[22:56] Well, Kyle, well, church, that's not right. Yes, God wants us to bring his, our prayers, anxieties, our cares, our concerns, anything to him, because he does care.

[23:09] But what he wants us and what he calls us to is trust him at his word. To do what he says, knowing that he cares and that he is the savior. The wedding needing more wine.

[23:23] So he tells people, go fill up some jars with water. Okay? The man needed his son healed. Go. Your son will live. So do you trust?

[23:36] How do you respond? So I think it's faith in his word results in a response to his word. And that's been a pattern that's repeated a couple times. I know Mike talked about that when the turning water to wine, right?

[23:48] The faith of those, you know, the response of the people was to go fill up these huge jars with water. Why am I filling up a jar with water? We asked for more wine. Why are we going to get water and filling them into a jar?

[23:59] They did it. Then the wine was there. The man needed his son healed, wanted his son healed. So he asked God, he asked Christ. And his response was to believe and to go.

[24:13] So there's a song that's been playing a lot in my head, on my phone. It's called How Long. So it says, I've trusted in your mercy.

[24:25] For your mercy, I will wait. As I lift my voice to you, oh Lord, will you increase my faith? The song talks about suffering. It's called How Long by John Guerrero. It asks questions of how long something will last but ends with what we see here.

[24:40] I trust your mercy. I trust your word. I trust in your promises. But as I say these things, please God, increase my faith. As a man says in Mark 9, I believe, help my unbelief.

[24:54] You say we only need faith the size of a mustard seed to move mountains. So I trust in who you are and what you say you'll do. So John writes these passages, writes this passage so that we can believe and confidently approach Christ to remind you that Christ, that in Christ, all his promises are yes and amen.

[25:12] 2 Corinthians 1.20. So how long will this thing last? The man needed something. He wanted something. Christ responded. Paul talks about the thorn in his side, the thorn in his flesh, that he asked God to constantly remove.

[25:26] God, please remove this. I want this gone. I want this gone. But God doesn't. He keeps it there. Paul remains faithful. He remains steadfast in his pursuit and the proclamation of the gospel.

[25:38] His focus is on his Savior rather than his self. There's another artist puts it. I know you're able. I know you can. Save through the fire with your mighty hand.

[25:49] But even if you don't, my hope is in you alone. I know the sorrow. I know the hurt. Would all go away if you'd just say the word. But even if you don't, my hope is in you alone. I believe your word because it's your word.

[26:01] I trust in your promises because they are your promises. I've seen who you are and therefore I trust. That's why John writes the book, the purpose of the book. We've heard that. We continue to go back to that.

[26:13] Your promises, or you promised life in your name, and that's the greatest yes of all. And Joshua, what's cool is this is the same thing that's repeated throughout scripture. Joshua says something like this in chapter 23, verse 14, at the end of his life.

[26:30] And now I'm about to go the way of all the earth. And you know in our heart, in your hearts and souls, that all of you, that not one word has failed all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you.

[26:41] Not one of them has failed. That is a great promise to remain faithful to who Christ is, what Christ has said, what God has promised. But I can't read this passage without reading the next passage.

[26:53] We don't want to stop at one verse and forget about the others. But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you. So the Lord will bring you upon you all the evil things until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you.

[27:09] If you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and you shall perish quickly from off the good land he has given you.

[27:21] This is a theme that's repeated, right? It's not explicitly stated, but John 3, 16, for God's love of the world, those who believe in him will have eternal life. Okay, well what's the opposite?

[27:32] Those who don't believe in him will not have life. They will have death. They will have separation. So God promises life for those who believe, who trust, who have faith, but he promises death and destruction for those who don't, who turn away from him.

[27:47] So for those of you who don't know who Christ is, who hear the word of the Lord and feel convicted, but you don't turn to him, remember what Christ has said. Belief, faith in Christ is life.

[28:00] Not belief, not belief, not faith in Christ is death. It's not something that's just separation, but it's eternal death. The official came pleading for the salvation for his kid, for the healing for his kid, and with a particular solution in mind, for Jesus to drop everything in Cana and to go to Capernaum to heal his son.

[28:21] But Jesus says go. The text says the official believes and he went. What's interesting is some commentators try to like figure all this out.

[28:31] Like, all right, if later on it says that he was healed at 1 p.m., that means Christ said something at 1 p.m. Well, it doesn't get dark for a couple hours. So it's at 1 p.m. Why are the official's servants finding him the next day and saying yesterday at 1 p.m.?

[28:48] Some people go as far to say like the official had so much faith in what Christ had said that he didn't drop everything and start running home. He had so much faith that he actually was like, I believe.

[29:00] So I got some errands to run in Cana. I'm an important official. I've got things to do in Cana. So I'm going to go here and I'm going to, you know, crash at the nearest Marriott, get my breakfast in the morning and go back the next day.

[29:11] You know, that's a lot of speculation. But at the end of the day, it does say the man believed. The official believed and went. He left that place where Jesus was and went.

[29:23] He went back home, started to go back home. The kid's book shows him going back home right away, but whatever. And honestly, I feel like my attitude in that situation would have been to drop everything and start running 20 miles downhill.

[29:37] Sounds way better than running 20 miles uphill. But on his way home, the servants find him and they say, your son's better. This is great. Like, you don't, like, I'm sure the official servants were trying to find him to say, hey, don't bother Jesus.

[29:52] Your son's okay now. Because there wasn't like, I'm assuming there's not these stars in the sky that come crashing down or this like, you know, portal that opens up above his son and now he's all of a sudden healed. So they come and say, hey, your son's better so that you don't have to worry about bothering Jesus if you haven't found him yet.

[30:08] And what this does is the man, he believes. When he hears that it was at one o'clock, that's the seventh hour is one o'clock, he believed. Jesus spoke a word and something happened 20 miles away.

[30:23] Healings that we see in scripture are always like right there. Jesus says, go do this, like go wash, go put mud on your eyes, go whatever. It's something that occurs right in front of you in most of scripture.

[30:34] But John puts this in this gospel or this story is in John's gospel to show that Jesus has power 20 miles away. Jesus has power to say go. Your son will live.

[30:47] It's a promise. And the man hears it. The father knew that was the hour that Jesus had said to him, your son will live. What happens?

[30:58] He believed. Not only himself, but his entire household. And if we go back to like potentially Joanna being someone who is married to this person, she believed so much that she is now ministering to the disciples.

[31:12] She left whatever comfort she had to go minister to somebody who was not somebody the Romans were particularly happy with or not somebody the Jewish people were particularly happy with.

[31:25] The man believed, he went, and Jesus speaking this word transforms the life of not only the man, the official, but his entire family. Right? The story that the man is going to tell his son later on, like, dude, you were on your deathbed.

[31:41] You had a super high fever. We had no idea what was going on. I traveled all the way uphill to Cana to see Jesus. I pleaded for him to come down. All he said was go.

[31:53] Your son will live. I came back and you were alive. Like this God is the God who can do anything. This kind of ties to what Jim had talked about last week.

[32:06] The Protestants three phases of saving faith. Gnoshia faith. This is like the Galileans and the Jews. They saw and they liked what they saw. So they trusted.

[32:18] They believed and that was kind of where it ended. The intellectual assent or the assesis, assensus. And this is kind of like after the official was told to go. Like he knew that Jesus could do things.

[32:29] Jesus said, go your son will live. So he's like, alright, I trust not only in what I've seen but in the word that this guy told me. But then when he sees, when he hears that his son is truly, that his son is actually alive and has been saved, it's that fiducia trust.

[32:45] That fiducia belief where it's that personal trust, that life-changing perspective. This shifts that, his purpose from his self to his savior. Just like Paul.

[32:55] Right? And faith in Christ results in a true joy and a transition and perspective from self to savior. The man no longer worried about what was going on but he trusted in who Christ was.

[33:09] John wrote this book so that we can see the transformational power of Christ. So Jesus commanded to go. That was the command to the official. Go.

[33:20] With a promise that you will live. So how do we respond in these situations? Jesus says go. What do we do? Jesus promises salvation for those who believe. He doesn't promise an easy road.

[33:33] I was talking to Jim about this a little bit before the service. We just finished reading Pilgrim's Progress to the kids. It's a deep book but they have a kids version with owls and bunnies.

[33:45] So whenever we see an owl, Ellis goes, look, it's evangelist. Which is great. That means he's hearing, he's understanding. A three-year-old can hear and understand. But this book doesn't put it lightly.

[33:57] Right? Even the kids book has a good perspective on the path set before the followers of Christ. The resounding theme throughout the story is stay the course.

[34:08] Trust in the saving power of his name and his word to stay faithful to the end and rest in his promise. So is that what you're doing? Are you trusting in the saving power of his name resting in him?

[34:20] Or are you asking him to do things your way because obviously we know best. So I pray that these lessons that we've seen here to come to faith, come in faith before Christ to lay your needs at the foot of the cross.

[34:35] Knowing that he cares and trusting but having faith in his name will sit true in your life. It's been a good lesson to Megan and I for the last couple months. when things don't make ooh that's loud sense and don't go the way we planned.

[34:51] Right? Sometimes things don't make sense, life doesn't make sense, they don't go the way that we expect or plan. But Jesus promises salvation for those who believe in his son.

[35:03] So as you leave here today do you trust and believe in his name? Are you waiting for that sign or that wonder or say God if you do this then I'll believe. The man didn't do that.

[35:16] The man believed Jesus at his word. So do you respond like the Judeans or the Galileans who walk by sight? Or like the Samaritans or the officials, right?

[35:28] The half-breed Jews or the Gentiles to go in faith, to believe. It doesn't mean everything's going to be fixed. I believe but life is still difficult.

[35:40] I believe but Megan still has random fatigue that surpasses that of a mom of two boys. I believe but that doesn't make miscarriage any easier. I believe and I know that one day those things are going to be redeemed because Christ says they will.

[35:58] Christ lived that perfect life so when I don't, when things go bad I can rest in him. He came, he turned water into wine and healed this official son so I can read this text and read the end of John, John 21 and know that Christ's sacrifice was sufficient for my life because he is the son of God.

[36:20] And what's cool about this text is that when Jesus tells the official to go we can read this 2,000 years later hearing Jesus say come, come to me, trust in my name.

[36:34] So do I trust in his promises because they are his promises even when life's not going the way that I planned it? Do I trust in his word because it's his word knowing that one day all the pain, the suffering, all the joy and the rejoicing will pale in comparison to seeing Jesus face to face and worshiping alongside brothers and sisters in Christ.

[36:57] Jesus says go and the official went, he believed. Jesus says come to me all you who are weary and I will give you strength, Matthew 11, 28. have faith in who you say I am or who I say I am.

[37:10] John wrote this book so that we can see, read and believe not because of all the cool things that Jesus did but to show us that Jesus was real, did real things, changed real lives and in doing so fulfilled all that was needed and asked that we do nothing but believe in him, have faith and trust him as our savior.

[37:34] Remember that true faith in Christ results and that true joy and transition in perspective from self to savior. So as we remember these things, think about the purpose of the book.

[37:46] Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God and by believing in his name, by believing you may have life in his name.

[38:03] So church, I encourage you, go in faith, come in faith to Christ knowing that what he accomplished fulfills what you and I could not and then live in light of what Christ has done.

[38:18] So let's pray. God, we thank you. Lord, you're a good God, a great savior. How do we come knowing that faith in you results in life, belief in what Christ has done results in life, not death.

[38:40] Death and destruction is reserved for those who turn and don't believe. Don't believe in the gracious offer that you've provided. So God, I pray that this morning we would walk out of these doors believing that Jesus is the Christ, that the four words, five words that Jesus tells the official, go, your son will live, will resound in our lives because you've told us to come to you, to go out into the world proclaiming your name because your name is better than anything here in life, in this world.

[39:20] God, that your name satisfies that our lives or that we would turn our hearts to you in the good, the bad, the ugly, the rejoicing, Lord, that we might know you more, the God who sent his son to turn water into wine, to raise a man's son, or to heal a man's son 20 miles away, to do many other signs and wonders so that we may believe and have life in his name.

[39:55] Amen.