John 4:43-54
Not Everyone who Believes Believes
Good morning to you all again. Let me add my welcome as well to that of Kyle’s especially if you are here for the first time or if you have just joined us in the last couple of weeks. We are delighted to have you with us and we do hope that you will feel at home here at St. James. I would strongly encourage all of us, St. James regulars and new-regulars, to make every effort to join us every Sunday morning. We as a staff team can’t stress enough how vital that is for your sake, the children and for the sake of the whole body that you are called to be a part of and to serve…
Let me remind you all that we are currently working our way through the signs that Jesus performed as recorded in John’s Gospel. That is why our series is called, “please God give me a sign”. Guess what? He has! And we are talking about them in this series. And can anybody tell me why John chose to record these signs in this book? Do you remember from last week? Can we say it together with the actions? “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 eternal life in His name”. I wonder how many of you would have deserved a chocolate for that effort?...
Well, the South African rugby legend Joost van der Westhuizensadly died this week. Now because I’m a small guy I love scrumhalves and Joost was my all-time rugby hero... As you know what happens when anyone dies is that all of a sudden you remember that you will also die as well. It’s remarkable how we forget that isn’t it? And then in those few solemn moments we ask ourselves, what will happen when I die?...
What John has done in this book is, he’s recorded these miraculous signs that Jesus performed 2000 years ago. And the reason he did that was so that you and I living 2000 years later would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, because it is only by believing in Him that you will, in fact,have eternal life... So let me ask you straight away this morning do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? Do you know what it means that He is the Christ? Do you have eternal life because of your faith in Jesus the Christ?...Well, let’s have a look at our sign for this morning which is recorded in John 4:43-54.
If you haven’t already done so please open up your Bible to John 4:43:54. That is our passage for this morning. If John’s purpose in recording these signs is that we may believe and by believing have eternal life, what he wants us to see in this passageis the sad reality that in fact, not everyone who claims to believe in Jesus is a genuine believer in Jesus. Not everyone who believes believes.
Let’s have a look at the text. On the surface of it, this looks a very straight forward story. v43Jesus goes to Galilee, v47a man asks Jesus to heal his sick son, v50Jesus says “your Son will live”, v53 the man and his whole family believe and John tells us that this was the second sign that Jesus performed in Galilee. That’s the story.
It seems straight forward until you have a look at the details a little more carefully: Have a look atv43. Jesus left for Galilee right? But v44 strangely says “Now Jesus Himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honour in his own country”. What is Galilee to Jesus? It’s His own country. Jesus’ hometown is Nazareth which is in Galilee. So then what v44 is telling us is that Jesus is going to Galilee knowing full-well that in Galilee He will be rejected. He goes to Galilee knowing full-well that the Galileans won’t believe in Him.
In fact on another occasion when Jesus went to Galilee, we are told by Luke that His homeboys tried to throw Him off a cliff! Listen to this: “Jesus returned to Galilee in power of the Spirit, and the news about Him spread through the whole countryside… later on Jesus said, ‘I tell you the truth. No prophet is accepted in his home town. [sound familiar?] I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.’ [here it is] All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.”As Jesus said, No prophet is accepted in his home town. And so when Jesus goes to Galilee,He knows full-well that He won’t be accepted. That is why He says again in v44 “a prophet has no honour in his own country”…
Okay but that doesn’t make sense when you look at v45. Because“When He arrived in Galilee, the Galileans actually welcomed Him...”He is accepted in Galilee. So how can Jesus say, a prophet has no honour in his own country ifthe Galileans welcomed Him. Was He wrong? Was He mistaken? Did the Galileans have a change of heart? One minute they are throwing Him off a cliff the next they are rolling out the red-carpet? What’s going on? Well look at the rest of the verse. “When He arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed Him. They had seenall that He had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there.” Ahhhh… Do you see it? They had seen all the miracles that he had performed… that is why the red-carpet is now rolled out all of a sudden...
It’s like with these celebrities on TV? They reject Jesus, they haven’t set foot in church in decades, they’re living the rock ‘n roll life: sex, drugs, money and alcohol but when they get their awards at the Grammys or at the Oscars, “I’d like to first of all thank Jesus.” And then Christians get all excited because Jesus was mentioned by a celebrity. Perhaps you have a friend, he doesn’t know that the Bible has 2 testaments, he was last at church when he was in Sunday school, rejected Jesus, thinks life is all about sex, money and a great job, and nowhe’s climbed the corporate ladder, got that promotion and then all over Facebook, “thank you Jesus”…“keep ‘em coming Jesus”…What about you? Perhaps you got that bursary, maybe you got that job, that house, that big fish of a client, that car, that extra money, and you’re now like, “thank you Jesus”. Or maybe there’s something that you desperately want or need and you’ve named it and claimed it in Jesus’ name!you’re trusting Jesus: He’s got the power to deliever! “thank you Jesus!”... “A prophet has no honour in his home country… When He arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed Him. They had seen all that He had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast.” See the point?
When John says they welcomed Him, he is being devastatingly ironic. John knows that they didn’t welcome Jesus. They welcomed the miracles of Jesus.Jesus was the celebrity who was famous for doing miracles you see. That’s why John continues to say in v46, “Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine.” He’s emphasising the point thatJesus is going back to people who know Him and welcome Him as a miracle worker. “Thank you Jesus”. They didn’t care about who Jesus says He is or what Jesus says He is actually all about. The welcome that Jesus receives in His home country in Galilee is similar to what would happen to you if ever won the lotto. Do you know what would happen if you won the lotto?
You would discover that you have cousins that you didn’t know exist. You would get phone calls from your long lost uncles inviting you to come to supper… and do you know what John would write if he was recording your story? John would write, “andyour uncles welcomed you”. Do you see the point?...The sad reality is that not everyone who believes in Jesus believes in Jesus… They didn’t welcome Jesus. They welcomed His miracles.
So what would you naturally expect to happen next?now that Jesus the miracle celebrity is in town? You would expect someone to ask Him for a miracle right? And that’s exactly what happens. V46, “And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at 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.” That’s predictable. They welcomed His miracles…
But pause here with me and zoom out for a second because something devastating is going on here. Now that I’m going to be a dad to a son soon, I’m telling you I would do absolutely anything to heal my son if he were terminally ill. My son hasn’t even been born yet but that’s how I already feel about him… imagine this guy whose son lay sick at Capernaum?! I feel for him because I can see myself also running to find this miracle worker called Jesus to come heal my sick son who’s about to die.You’ve got to feel the fact that we’re not talking about fun and games here. We are talking about a real father with a real son who’s about to die.
Now look at howJesus responds to thishurting father who is desperate for his dying son.He responds with a rebuke. Shockingly, He rebukes him. Look at v48.
“Unless you people [you see the royal official stands as a representative of all the Galileans] unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”Jesus is not saying that they will believe in Him if He performs signs and wonders. He is shaming them for believing that He is simply a celebrity miracle worker. They don’t truly believe in Him. Remember John tells us in v45 that they had seen all that He had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast. Look at what he said aboutthem at that time in chapter 2:23-25.“Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.” Even though they appeared to believe in Him, Jesus knew what was in their hearts.And soHere He is rebuking the royal official along with all the Galileans because Jesus knows that they are all miracle chasers who view Jesus as nothing but a vending machine.
You see Jesus was talking about exactly the kind of people who need Him for a miracle when He said a prophet has no honour in His hometown v44… He’s talking about the people who are asking Him for a miracle to bring a little boy back from the brink of death… He calls them dishonouring. When you see people today rushing to the Benny Hinns of this world and to these churches of signs of wonders and to these so-called prophets and miracle workers who promise people miracles in Jesus’ name, you must remember that those people that go there are like you; they have deeply serious needs and terribly painful burdens... Yet Jesus nevertheless says that that pursuit of Him for miracles is not honouring to Him. In fact it is in exactly the same category as trying to throw Him off a cliff.
Jesus says the same thing about both kinds of people: He says a prophet has no honour in his home country, speaking about both those who welcome Him for miracles and those who try to throw Him off a cliff, bothare equally DISHONOURING….
V48 is a shocking response to someone with a dying child isn’t it? Now you might be tempted to think at this point that Jesus is really insensitive and mean. But He is not... Even though Jesus words are painful, He is actually being extremely kind to this man because He is telling Him the truth. That’s what someone who loves you does. Proverbs 27:6 says “wounds from a friend can be trusted but an enemy multiplies kisses.”“wounds from a friend can be trusted but an enemy multiplies kisses.”C.S. Lewis once said “the hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men”. “the hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men”.The hard but deeply kind truth that Jesus is telling us is that: There’s nothing more important in this life than true faith in Jesus, not even your dying son. I would have thought that there’s nothing more significant than my dying son. This man is concerned about his dying son but Jesus is more concerned about the state of his faith. There’s nothing more important in this life than true faith in Jesus, not even your dying son... The rebuke of v48 challenges youto ask yourself, are you really trusting in Jesus or are you trusting in things that Jesus can do for you? Not everyone who believes believes and so we’ve got to search our hearts to see where we really stand with Jesus.
Do you know what inevitably happens to people with the kind of faith that thinks Jesus is a genie in a bottle who can perform wonders for them?
When the wonders don’t come, they are gone… When the promotion at work doesn’t come, they are gone. When it does come, they are gone. When suffering and persecution come, they are gone. When riches come, they are gone. When their friends mock them for following Jesus, they are gone. When the fancy house and car don’t come, they are gone. When lust comes, they are gone. When the internet is on, pornography takes over, and they are gone. When a boyfriend or girlfriend arrives, sex starts happening, and then they are gone. And we sit in church wondering where is so and so? Whatever happened to so and so? The truth is that they never truly believed in Jesus to begin with. It was a faith in things from Jesus. They never knewJesus. And so as John says in a letter that he wrote: “They left because they were not of us”... Not everyone who believes believes…
So then how do you think the royal official responds to this painful rebuke?Look at V49…“Sir,come down before my child dies”. He is saying, “Jesus just come down to my son please, he is dying. You’ve caught me red-handed. I can’t deny what you are saying. I’ve only come to you because I want a miracle from you. I’ve got no defence or justification that I can offer. Just come down before my son dies.”He knows he is guilty as charged and he doesn’t even put up a fight…
Notice in v50 that Jesus doesn’t, in fact, come down like he asks. Instead Jesus says to him “go”... And then He says, “your son will live”. For you to understand how this must have sounded in his ears, you have to imagine walking for a few hours from Bluewater Bayall the way to Summerstrand to find a miracle worker who’s just popped in to PE. Then after he rebukes you for coming to him for a miracle, he then suddenly says, “go back to Bluewater Bay,your son will live”.
That doesn’t sound too reassuring does it? You just told Him to come, your son is dying how can Jesus now say, “go, your son will live”?
You see Jesus deliberatelydoesn’t give the royal official a miracle to seeat this point… Instead He gives him His words to believe…Again, Jesus is being kind here. He is trying to get this man to a point where is actually trusting Jesus and not simply looking for a miracle. And so the official is facing a real test at this point. He’s been confronted by Jesus for not trusting Him, for being a miracle chaser, for treating Jesus as a means to an end, for being a believer who doesn’t really believe. And he knows that’s all true. He hasn’t tried to justify himself by saying, “no Jesus, you’re wrong about me. I’m not like the others. I’m a real believer.” He knows he is guilty as charged.
So now that Jesus refuses to come to Capernaum like he asked Him to, and now that Jesus has told himinstead to go, his son will live; he’s got a real test on his hands. He has no way of knowing whether His son will be okay or whether by “going” as Jesus said, he will get home only to find him dead. He’s got 2 options: 1) He can walk away from Jesus crying and despairing because Jesus has refused to come to His son or 2) he can embrace the rebuke and change His attitude towards Jesus and take Him at His word for the very first time in His life…