2/25/07 Figuring Out Faith Pt. 1

JOH 4:46-53 He came therefore again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain royal official, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him, and was requesting Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe." The royal official said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies." Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he started off. And as he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living. So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives"; and he himself believed, and his whole household.

Everything we find within the Gospel of John

was carefully selected by John

for a specific purpose,

to help us with our own urgent search for our God.

Among the many great tragedies

of the 2000 years of religious heritage

that has grown up around the historical accounts of the life of Christ

is the tragedy of what we have done

with these carefully preserved Gospel records.

For most of us

our first exposure to the Gospels

comes to us under the heading of “Bible Stories”.

They are scattered throughout our cultural heritage

as little more than curious anecdotes about the life of Christ,

in much the same way as we recall George Washington cutting down the cherry tree,

or Abe Lincoln doing his school work by fire light.

And every once in a while

I think it will help us as we move through this study of John

to remind ourselves of what’s really happening here.

What we have recorded for us in this Gospel

is not simply a collection

of some of John’s favorite memories of Jesus.

This is not an old man

reminiscing over his youth,

sharing random memories of the good old days when Jesus was here.

What we have recorded for us

are certain specific events

carefully selected by John

to help move us into the truth about this Person

who lived briefly on this earth two thousand years ago.

You remember what John tells us about his gospel, don’t you?

JOH 20:30-31 Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

And just to help you appreciate

the precision with which John selected and edited his material,

let me point out

where the passage we’ll look at this morning

fits into the historical flow of Jesus’ life.

John has selected a chronological framework

in which to present the material he wants us to have.

He starts at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry

and then carefully selects a few events during the four years that follow

to help move us into the understanding we need.

And just to help you understand

where he places his greatest emphasis

it may interest you to know that of the 21 chapters in the book

John gives the first 11 chapters to his account of the first four years of Jesus public ministry

and the final 10 chapters to the last week prior to the crucifixion

and then to the crucifixion itself,

Jesus resurrection from the dead,

and then His brief time here prior to His departure.

Nearly half of the entire account

is devoted to an account of the Jesus’ final few days on this earth.

And in the section we are now studying

we find that the first four chapters of John’s gospel

contain everything John chose to share with us

from the entire first full year of Jesus’ ministry.

In fact, when we pick up our study with chapter five

we’ll discover that he’s jumped ahead nearly a full year.

Which means, of course,

that each of the few events selected from that first year

were carefully chosen for specific reasons.

And do you remember what we have found in those first four chapters so far?

John began with the clear, concise statement

of where he wanted to take us.

There are no surprise endings here.

From the opening words of his historical record

John wanted it clearly understood who he was writing about.

And by the way,

that is what this is, you know.

This is an historical record.

This isn’t a religious document,

it’s an historical document.

It’s certainly true that massive religious systems have grown up from it,

but that was not John’s intent.

His intent was to preserve for us

an accurate record of what he himself had witnessed

concerning God’s direct intervention into the flow of human history.

That’s what we are in the process of studying,

and he began that account with these words.

JOH 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

He wanted us to know from the very beginning

that, though at first it might sound as if he was just telling us about the life of a man,

that’s not what’s really happening.

This was and is God in human form.

From there he went on to tell us why this God/man came.

JOH 1:12-14 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

He came for two reasons -

to provide us with a way back to our Creator,

offering each of us the opportunity to literally become the children of God,

and He also came

so that we could know with absolute clarity

exactly what our God is like.

To see Jesus Christ

is to see God.

From there John then selected several first-encounters between Jesus and certain individuals,

and with each of those first encounters

we saw him providing us with the ground-rules

for what we could expect

when we take our own first tentative steps toward our God.

There was Andrew, and Peter, and Philip, and Nathanael,

and with each of them

we saw this God/man reaching out to them,

seeking them,

bringing them to Himself right where they were, just as they were.

They didn’t know who He was at the time,

but He knew who they were,

and He took them just as they were,

knowing that whatever changes needed to take place in their lives

would take place as they began to discover and then respond to His love for them.

Then, at the end of chapter two,

John takes us along on Jesus’ first public trip to Jerusalem

and we listen in on His offer of Himself as the promised Messiah

to the nation as a whole.

Following that, John gives us only four more incidents

from that entire first year.

One of them is a late night interview

between Jesus and a man named Nicodemus.

That interview was most certainly included

because of the clarity and conciseness with which Jesus revealed Himself and His purpose to that man.

JOH 3:14-17 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.”

That was not a message He proclaimed publicly at the time

because there were not many who could receive it,

but John knew how valuable it would be

for those of us in the years ahead.

The next event selected by John

is a conversation between John the Baptist and his disciples,

a conversation in which John gives the most significant prophet statement about Christ ever given by any prophet prior to the crucifixion.

JOH 3:34-36 "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

The third event selected by John from that first year

is the one we’ve just finished studying,

Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman

and the effect it had both on her and on a number of others.

And as we’ve seen,

this was included at least in part

because it prepares us for the pattern we can expect God to follow in our own lives

if we choose to open our lives to Him.

We saw the way Jesus found a doorway into her life,

beginning right where she was.

With her it was something as simple

as going to the well for a drink of water.

With us it will be something else,

something with which He can get our attention

and then begin stirring within us

our spirits’ deep hunger for our God.

From there we saw Him place His hand onto her God-substitute,

confronting her with what she’d been using

to hide from the deep emptiness within.

And we saw Him do it in a way that did not condemn,

did not shame,

did not crush her spirit,

but rather simply allowed her to see the futility of what she’d chosen.

And then He brought her into the knowledge of the love of her God for her,

and through that knowledge changed her life forever.

It’s no wonder John selected that interview for his account.

He wanted us to see both the compassion of our God

and the care with which He draws us to Himself.

Which brings us to the final event from that first year

that John chose to include in his account,

the event we will look at during the rest of our time together this morning.

It’s found in John 4:46-54,

and on the surface it appears to be simply the account

of one of the countless miraculous works of healing

performed by Jesus during His time here.

But there are some aspects of this particular event

that motivated John to include it.

There is something he wants us to understand

about the truth nature of faith

and about the way God accomplishes His work in our lives.

Now this event takes place

within a few days following Jesus’ departure from Samaria.

He and His disciples continue to head north

but they bypass His home town of Nazareth

because, well as Jesus Himself says,

JOH 4:44 ... a prophet has no honor in his own country.

Having known Him as a child

they simply refused to accept Him as an adult,

and certainly not as a Prophet of God.

But not so with Cana.

In fact Cana was more than eager to have Him back.

It was only a few weeks,

or at most a few months earlier

that Jesus had shown up at that wedding,

and turned all of that water into wine.

And His return to the town was welcomed with enthusiasm.

And it wasn’t just that.

There were many in the area

who had been in Jerusalem at the Passover.

And they’d seen what He’d done in the Temple,

and they’d heard His teaching,

and they’d witnessed the miracles He’d performed.

Even now, just a few months following His public presentation of Himself to the nation,

Jesus was rapidly becoming the central figure in the nation,

and news of His return to the north spread on ahead of Him.

And there was one man especially

who was waiting eagerly for Jesus’ return.

We are not told his name,

but we are told that he was a man of some prominence in the Jewish community.

He is identified only as “a certain royal official”.

And we are given one other piece of information as well.

His son was near death.

He lived in Capernaum,

which would have been at least a 7 or 8 hour journey from Cana on foot.

As soon as he heard of Jesus’ return to Cana

he left his dying son

and set off in search of the Master.

He was a man desperate for help,

a man immersed in pain,

a man who’d done everything,

tried everything,

a man who knew there was no hope apart from the miraculous intervention of God in his son’s life.

Ever been there?

Ever hurt like that?

Ever seen someone you love

in tremendous physical or emotional pain and suffering

and known there was nothing you could do to fix it,

nothing you could do to change it?

I have.

It has a cleansing affect on the soul

as nothing else can ever do.

All the things that don’t really matter in life loose their hold,

and all the things that cannot deliver loose their attraction.

Even things that we once guarded and protected with such a vengeance -

our public image,

our tiny pile of hoarded resources that once gave us a sense of security -

all of them are seen for what they really are,

just foolish, empty games.

And all of the sudden

God simply must be there,

and He must hear,

and He must care,

and He must love enough to reach into our lives

and hold us through the storm.

It was that way for me

throughout most of my daughter’s first year in college.

She was in intense, constant emotional pain,

and so were Sandee and I.

Of course I tried to find human resources,

someone, anyone who would help.

I reached out to family members.

Most of them couldn’t help,

some of them simply wouldn’t.

Does it sound awful?

Does it sound like nothing you’d ever want to go through?

Well, I can only say that there are things within us

that can only be accomplished at such times in our lives,

things about our God

that we simply cannot discover any other way.

And once the discoveries are made

they become the anchors within our souls

that keep us sane

and keep us strong for the rest of our lives.

We know from John’s account

that this was such a time in this man’s life.

We know it because of his actions

and because of his words.

And there was a certain royal official, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him, and was requesting Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death.

He didn’t try to send for Jesus

as he would undoubtedly have sent for anyone else.

The pain and desperation within him

caused him to set aside all facade,

all social posturing,

and drove him to seek out Jesus at any cost.

And when he finally found the Master

I am certain he didn’t just hang around politely at the back of the crowd

waiting for a convenient time to talk with Him.

I think he pushed and shoved his way through the crowd

until he stood before Jesus

and then begged Him to come back with him to Capernaum.

And then we have

what at first glance seems like a strange response from Jesus.

Jesus therefore said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe."

And the only way I can understand that statement

is when I see it in the light of this man’s response to it.

What he said was,

"Sir, come down before my child dies."

Rather than being offended by the Lord’s words,

the man simply, respectfully, desperately ripped open his heart

and made two things clear to everyone there.

First, he made it clear that he believed Jesus could heal his son if He chose to,

and, second, he saw Jesus as his only hope.

I think Jesus said what He said to the man

in order to bring this man’s heart out into the open.

In that one phrase, "Sir, come down before my child dies." ,

it’s as if he’s saying,

“I don’t care about signs and wonders. All I care about is my son,

my precious, precious son.

And I know that you, Sir, are my only hope.”

And that’s what Jesus wanted us to see.

He wanted us to see exactly where this man was at.

Jesus wasn’t just one option among several.

This man wasn’t just at a point where he was trying Jesus

to see if something might happen.

This man had reached that point in life at which he knew

that either there was Jesus or there was nothing -

no hope,

no future,

nothing.

And let me just say

that there is no place in life we will more fiercely resist going than there.

And yet there is no more truly redeeming place we can ever be

because it is at that point

that we see the true nature of life with absolute clarity.

You see, without Him there really is no hope,

no future,

nothing that can make any real sense out of this life.

I’m not saying that a crisis like this

is the only way to get there,

but I am saying that coming to this truth

is the only adequate foundation for life.

Well, Jesus’ response to the man at this point

and then the man’s response to Jesus are great!

Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he started off.

The account continues a few more verses,

telling us how the man headed back home,

and how his servant met him on the way

and told him his son’s fever left him

at the exact time Jesus spoke those words, "Go your way; your son lives."

Now, of course, the account itself is a remarkable story,

but there is something else happening here

that I believe was central to why John chose to include the account in his Gospel.

He wanted us to see those ingredients that are always present

whenever true Biblical faith is exercised.

And there are just three of them.

The first is illustrated in the way this man reached out to Jesus.

I don’t think he had worked through a full-blown doctrinal recognition

that this was in fact God in human form,

but I do know that he saw Jesus

as being united with God in a way that made the two synonymous.

And I’m making that too difficult.

This man knew Jesus was there

and he needed Him at any cost.

This man was not playing at religion.

He simply knew Jesus was there and Jesus was His only hope.

And that is where all true faith begins.

It begins with our spirit’s recognition

of our desperate need for our God.

Then comes the second ingredient of faith,

the clear, understandable words of Jesus.

"Go your way; your son lives."

And without that

there is no basis for true faith.

Faith is not some kind of leap in the dark.

It isn’t some sort of blind religious plunge

in which we declare, “I’m just going to launch out by faith!”

Simply put,

if God hasn’t spoken to us concerning the issue at hand,

we have no basis for Biblical faith.

That doesn’t mean we have no basis for reaching out to our God.

I have frequently cried out to my God for help,

for healing,

for deliverance,

for His work in my life or in the life of someone I love,

not having a clue as to what God intends to do.

But I do it not because I have a clear word from my God

that gives me a basis for true Biblical faith,

but simply because I know my God is good,

and by His grace He has allowed me to live continually in His presence.

But this man in John’s gospel had far more -

he had a clear word from Jesus

giving him a clear basis for faith.

And then, third,

we have the man’s decision to trust what Jesus said.

The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he started off.

And I believe John included this account in his Gospel

because He wanted us to see the real thing.

Well, we’re out of time for the morning,

but I think maybe we need to do a little more with this faith thing before we move on,

so I believe we’ll come back to it for one more time next week.