The Resistance to Belief

Laurel Bible Church

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then he came again to Cana of Galilee where he had made the water wine and There was a 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 asking him to come down and heal his son for he was about to die

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So Jesus said to him Unless you people see signs and wonders you will never believe

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The royal official said to him sir come down before my child dies

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Jesus said to him go your son lives The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way

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And while he was still going down his slaves met him saying that his son was alive

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So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him

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Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him So the father knew that it was at that hour in which

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Jesus said to him your son lives and he himself Believed and his whole household

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This is again a second sign that Jesus did when he had come out of Judea into Galilee you may be seated and So as we see now this

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Historical account this eyewitness account this eyewitness testimony from the

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Apostle it reminds us again, why we are reading this particular eyewitness testimony why this gospel and John is helping to point us back to these signs

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He points us back to the first sign when he came again to Cana of Galilee where he had made the water wine, and so it's the

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Overall purpose of the account the big picture is not the miraculous event that had taken place

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And it was a miraculous event the laws of creation. The natural order had been violated by Christ and Instantaneously healing a boy that he wasn't even physically present with over a great distance actually

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But the overall purpose of the account isn't the miraculous sign. It's that people Know the one who did the sign that they know

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Jesus that they would know God the Father and believe and have eternal life that they would know that the

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Father sent the Son that they would believe in Christ Ultimately that they would believe and have eternal life.

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That's the big picture the overall purpose of the account the sign wonders were miracles that Pointed to a spiritual truth and this account shows

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God saves sinners despite their unbelief Not because of their belief despite their unbelief the

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Apostle John is connecting this account back to the immediate context of the

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Samaritan woman at the well and this is what we will see really is with the Galileans versus the

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Samaritans an unwillingness Versus a willingness to believe the folks who had witnessed the miracles the

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Galileans versus the ones who did not yet believe the Samaritans as John transitions away from that account to explain the second sign that Jesus performed

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He reminds his readers about the first sign wonder Jesus turning water into wine

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John wants you to see what the disciples did because the sign miracle of Turning water into wine showed the power of Jesus over the natural laws in creation

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John recorded the first sign because it also revealed the way Jesus would go about his earthly ministry

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Kind of a foreshadow really Jesus helped sinners and taught and spoke with authority

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Jesus as God was in close proximity and had an intimate connection with people

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These signs aren't just because God can do them Sign miracles are not merely superhuman events

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The point is God doesn't act without purpose. In other words the sign events had the purpose of manifesting

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God's power in validating Jesus's acceptance to the title Messiah Christ We can even see a connection to the sign miracles as the creator

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Jesus was restoring the fallen creation not in total

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But partially as a foreshadow of what Messiah will do in the fullness of time at the end of the age

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Very close to all the sign miracles. Jesus did was a renewal a renewal of fallen creation the restoration of sight

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Jesus made the lame walk and even literally restoring life to the dead on multiple occasions

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Death being a consequence of the fall John would have you believe in Christ not because he's an unreachable

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Divine super being who works miracles the miracles aren't the point they merely demonstrate his true identity

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John is showing his readers who Jesus really is Jesus is the

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God who continues to work in his creation. He is not far off from you Jesus as Messiah worked for others in his earthly ministry and Continues to act now on behalf of those who need help

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We all need the ministry of Jesus today Jesus is the God who rescues the sinner

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He aids those who are poor in spirit and weak. He comforts the crippled

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He fathers the orphaned he will give sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf

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Whatever the need Whatever the need no matter how small no matter how urgent the problem.

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Jesus is the God who saves The Apostle John recorded the first sign miracle of Jesus of Nazareth early in his gospel account

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Jesus turned water into wine so that you can know that as the Messiah Jesus is the only source of life

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Jesus turned water into wine The circumstances of the first sign showed that Jesus knows exactly what he is doing and he does not act without intention and purpose the consequence of the first sign was that the disciples witnessed his revealed glory the power of God and believed in their hearts and that was the the question that Jesus was answering is

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Jesus the Messiah is Jesus God's anointed and a better question for all of us really this morning for you.

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Do you want to believe it? Do you want to believe that Jesus is the Messiah?

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And that's certainly what was going on with the Galileans All sinners have a strong desire not to believe it not to believe it which actually lends weight to it being the truth

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Without any worldly presuppositions, there's more reason to believe in the life death and resurrection of Jesus than not to in verses 46 through 54

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John testifies to the second sign wonder where Jesus healed a royal official son without being physically

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Present so that you can see that despite mankind's resistance to belief

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Jesus is willing to heal and save the second sign wonder and we can look at Look at it really from two points

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The second sign wonder will see the willful unbelief of mankind the willful unbelief of mankind verses 46 through 49 and Then the willingness of the

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Savior the willingness of the Savior verses 50 through 54 the second sign wonder in Verses 46 through 49.

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We see the willful unbelief of mankind Let's read again then he came again to Cana of Galilee where he had made the water wine and There was a 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 asking him to come down and heal his son

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For he was about to die So Jesus said to him Unless you people see signs and wonders

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You will never believe the royal official said to him sir come down before my child dies

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The willful unbelief of mankind and As we start this section off we can try to understand what's going on and why this guy is coming

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It says that he came again to Cana of Galilee where he had made the water wine

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So before we continue, let's pause briefly turn back to chapter 2 I want to show you three verses in chapter 2 that help us understand why he had come chapter 2 starting in verse 1 and On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there now look at verse 9

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Here's the miracle now when the head waiter tasted the water which had become wine and did not know where it had come from but the servants who had drawn the water knew the head waiter called the bridegroom and Then here it is verse 12 after this he went down to Capernaum He and his mother and his brothers and his disciples and they stayed there a few days

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So that's helpful for us. Go ahead and turn back to chapter 4 as we're thinking about this

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Whole thing that has happened we can then understand. Yeah, Jesus spent some time in Capernaum So this guy clearly had heard about what had taken place

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Although John doesn't give us the specific details or the person's name It's very likely that this was a government official in some capacity

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Serving under the Tetrarch Herod and so we see some specific words that are used here to describe him

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But we also need to understand that Herod was not actually a king like we think of today or like medieval times

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No, he's described in the Bible as Tetrarch, which literally means ruler of a fourth part ruler of a fourth part

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The title correlates to what was going on in Macedonia to describe the four rulers of Thessaly When King Herod known as Herod the

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Great had died His territory was divvied up among his sons and so his son

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Archelaus had received Judea Samaria and Udemia Herod Antipas got

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Galilee and Perea While the son Philip got Trachonitis Iturea Botania and Oronitis So you don't have to remember all those difficult names to say

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I feel like I'm glad that they're done But also the point is that it was divvied up and so because of the size of Judah and Samaria It seemed

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Archelaus got about half and the other two about a quarter each So very literally a fourth the title

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Tetrarch was very appropriate Whatever the exact governance in the era in the area the

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Herod of this account was not actually a king But a local Tetrarch someone who had been given authority by by the

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Roman government over just just this small area But we can probably assume understanding human nature that he fancied the title of king for himself since his father had been a king and In other

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Gospels, we see this same person referred to as King Herod mark chapter 6 King Herod heard it for his name had become well -known referring to Christ and people were saying so that's

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King Herod Same person the clue that this person in the account is in Herod's court is in the

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Greek word John used to translate for us as royal Royal that's the clue the word royal as in a king's official robe

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It can also mean royal officer or palace The root word is actually the word for king in Greek and we have other examples of people that are in Herod's service

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There is a guy named Kooza mentioned in Luke's gospel Luke chapter 8 Joanna the wife of Kooza Herod's manager and Susanna and many others were who were ministering to them from their possessions the word used for him

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Manager is not what we see here in the Gospel of John. There is another candidate

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There's also a man named Mainan in the Acts of the Apostles Acts chapter 13 and there was at Antioch in the church that was their prophets and teachers

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Barnabas and Simon who was called Negear and Lucius of Cyrene and Mainan who had been brought up with Herod the

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Tetrarch and Saul Now I read one commentary who pointed out that Kooza or Mainan could have been the person meant here in this

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Gospel account in John He pointed out the speculation that if Kooza was the father of the boy who is healed

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Then it would explain why his wife was later found among the group of women who followed

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Jesus and supported him out of their means However, John makes no such connection.

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So it's only Speculation to think that this royal official here could be leaked and really linked to anybody else in the

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New Testament That's not the point the point that John is making for us is what Jesus did for the man and how the man and his

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Household came to belief John is helping to show us the willingness of Jesus to save people and heal them despite their obstinance and unbelieving hearts and the immediate context points us to the profound irony made in the preceding verse look at verse 45 of chapter 4

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So when he came to Galilee the Galileans received him having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast

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For they themselves also went to the feast Jesus had only recently performed a miracle in Cana at the wedding.

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The irony is that their response was not belief They just wanted to see more

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Jesus is simply saying out loud what he already knew in his omniscience John had made it clear how the people had responded and whether Jesus truly considered them his disciples or Followers he didn't look again back at chapter 2 just in verses 23 and 25

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Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast many believed in his name

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When they saw his signs which he was doing but Jesus on his part was not entrusting himself to them for he knew all men and Because he had no need that anyone bear witness concerning man for he himself knew what was in man

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Go back to chapter 4 instead of responding in belief. The people wanted more signs

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They just wanted more signs verse 45 needs to be read in light of how the

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Galileans had previously responded and Jesus's indictment of them in verse 48 unless you people see signs and wonders you'll never believe

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You will never believe in other words the reception from the Galileans Wasn't a heart motive of belief and faith.

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It was actually gross and insensitive to who Jesus truly was coming out of verses 45 and 46

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John then transitions to explain that this man had come from Capernaum to Galilee to see

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Jesus to Plead with him to plead with him the term he uses very clearly would designate someone who was officially attached to the service of quote

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King Herod and this would have been antipas a Tetrarch of Galilee from about 4

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BC to about 80 39 now Capernaum was about Approximately 20 miles northeast of Galilee.

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This isn't a small distance a Couple things to consider here about this this man. There's a desperation

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There's a desperation and urgency Demonstrated in the travel this guy had traveled 20 miles to see this man

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Jesus who at this point he had only heard of at least we don't know that directly from the the account is

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We traced Jesus's steps through the first sign wonder John pointed out that Jesus had stopped in Capernaum So at this point the word is out.

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The word is out There's a man going around who may or not may or may not be a prophet who is performing miracles

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The other thing that we shouldn't miss is that although this person was in the service of antipas the official addressed

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Jesus as Lord He addressed Jesus as Lord in verse 49 and this isn't an acknowledgment of deity

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No, but there's a respect there. The word translated sir in the legacy standard

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Bible is actually the Greek word for Lord. It's curious That's important because although he was a royal official.

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He was putting himself under Jesus the urgency of the health and life of his son had made him desperate to hope for a possible miracle an

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Outcome that would save his beloved child So even though he had legal authority over Jesus being in this in the service of antipas

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He is asking repeatedly for Jesus to help him. Notice the the tense of this asking it's ongoing the

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NASB translates the word asking as Imploring this is imploring him

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He's he's begging the official is repeatedly begging Jesus to heal his son and we can clearly see that he seemed to have little appreciation of who

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Jesus was other than the desperation and hoping that he could do something about his son and The word is different in verse 49 different Greek word that the

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Apostle uses It's not just the son it is the word for child and this

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Greek word means a young child This is a young boy a young child.

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This is a very young boy that the father is pleading for It seems that the officials heart motivation was probably more directly related to Jesus's reputation

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From what had taken place previously in Galilee in other words He was seeking out a miracle worker rather than the

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Messiah But what was about to take place was more than just a favor to one person No, this sign was for everyone remember

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John's eyewitness account was written for all people to urge them to believe that Jesus is the

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Christ We what we see here in this royal official is a desperate. Hope that Jesus could do

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What he thought was impossible to heal a dying boy and then

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Jesus explains what the resistance to belief is People want to see something

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The you in front of people is plural It seems clear in the context of the previous verses linking the first sign wonder back to the

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Galileans that he is addressing the Galileans as a whole So Jesus's indictment of their resistance to believe isn't for the royal official alone

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No, he's addressing the response of the Galileans The you in his comment is plural.

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So this is not just for the royal official Although it seems like the attitude is being lumped in with what

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Jesus saw in the response of the first sign wonder Their response did not regard the person of Christ Their response was incorrect because it centered on a need for a consistent display of signs

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They wanted to see the miraculous but it was not an appropriate heart response in that they ignore the person doing the miraculous and That attitude is what

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Jesus is talking about it's an attitude that represents the most shallow state of unbelief and For us as believers this same sort of resistant heart of even being

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Uncooperative or indifferent within the church to what what the church teaches? What's going on in the heart for a believer?

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And we'd love to say this doesn't apply to us, but sorry it does Willful unbelief is transformed into belief by God But in our new redeemed state, sometimes we hold on to the old way of doing things

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The old self won't quite leave us alone And the

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Apostle Paul talked about this over and over Although we are saved yet.

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We resist the Spirit we behave sometimes in ways that resembles unbelief the old self versus the new

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Listen to Paul just from the letter to the Colossians Colossians 3 Paul says this

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Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ Keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God set your mind on the things above Not on the things that are here on earth

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Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality impurity passion evil desire and greed which is idolatry on Account of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience and in them you also once Walked when you were living in them, but now you also lay them all aside wrath anger malice slander and abusive speech from your mouth

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Do not lie to one another since you put off the old man with its evil

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Practices and have put on the new man who is being renewed to a full knowledge

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According to the image of the one who created him So as the elect of God holy and beloved put on a heart of compassion kindness humility gentleness and patience bearing with one another and graciously forgiving each other

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Whoever has a complaint against anyone just as the Lord graciously forgave you so also should you above all these things put on love which is the perfect bond of unity and Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful let the

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Word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and Spiritual songs singing with gratefulness in your hearts to God and whatever you do in word or deed

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Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him

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That was for believers That's not for the unbeliever Paul is writing to a congregation full of born -again regenerated

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Christians Paul Even Paul's famous words from the letter to the

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Philippians Work out your salvation in fear and trembling They were stated in the context of our relationship with one another we hear that passage, but listen to the context

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He says therefore if there's any encouragement in Christ If there is any consolation of love if there's any fellowship of the

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Spirit if any affection and compassion Fulfill my joy that you think the same way by maintaining the same love being united in spirit

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Thinking on one purpose doing nothing from selfish ambition or vain glory but with humility of mind

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Regarding one another is more important than yourselves not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but also for the interest of others

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But now much more in my absence work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is

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God who is at work in you Both to will and to work for his good pleasure do all things without grumbling or disputing so that you will be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and Perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world

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Think about that Your Relationship with other people and the way you treat other

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Christians is what you should be working out whether you're really saved or not What is your relationship like with other

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Christians is? their grumbling and disputing is Their selfish ambition

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Paul says you need to check whether you really are a Christian or not Because Christians don't behave in that way

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See, there's a there's a willful Resistance to Christ again written to a church of Believers Paul starts that letter and says to the elders to the deacons to all the saints gathered in the church at Philippi Work out your salvation

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This kind of attitude that puts self first That puts self first that does not come from God and it should not describe or mark the follower of Christ James is very helpful here

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James chapter 3. He says who among you is wise and understanding Let him show by his good conduct his works in the gentleness of wisdom

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But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth

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This wisdom is not coming down from above But is earthly natural demonic

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For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there's disorder and every evil practice

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But the wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable considerate submissive full of mercy and good fruits without doubting without hypocrisy and the fruit of Righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace in all of these cases

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All of these letters were written to believers Disunity amongst believers is demonic

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Because it's devoid of humbleness and it treats the doctrines of God as a secondary matter

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The preacher Kosti Hinn recently said this the devil loves unity that ignores the truth

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What a statement the devil loves unity that ignores the truth Sometimes after being saved we can fool ourselves into thinking we checked in our unbelief

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But we actually harbor old habits of sin the willful unbelief actually got transformed into unwilling cooperation an attitude that puts self first The theologian

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Karl Truman made these comments on this heart of disobedience that really encapsulates modern

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Christianity in the United States Quote if the purpose of life is

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Individuals being whoever they want to be or whoever they think they should be then institutions like the church

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Change from being places of formation to places of performance they are no longer places of external authority, but rather vendors of particular visions of what it means to be me and I can choose whichever one suits my feelings and makes me feel happiest

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I have no obligation to the church or to anybody else that does not help my own program of self -realization and that renders thoroughly impossible the idea of the

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Church as the place where I am told who I am Who God is what

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I am to believe and how I am to worship and live in light of that Endquote Although we are saved yet.

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We resist the spirit and we behave sometimes in ways that resembles unbelief in today's passage the

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Apostle John recounts the Second sign wonder performed by Jesus so that you can see that despite mankind's resistance to belief

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Jesus is willing to heal and save the willful unbelief of mankind

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The willful unbelief of mankind is demonstrated by the Galilean's response in persistently desiring a constant display of miraculous signs while resisting

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Jesus is teaching the willful unbelief of mankind is demonstrated by the

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Galilean's response in persistently desiring a constant display of miraculous signs while resisting

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Jesus's teaching. And then we transition to verses 50 and 50 through 54, the willingness of the

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Savior. Look at verse 50. Jesus said to him, go your son lives.

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The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. And while he was still going down, his slaves met him saying that his son was alive.

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So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said to him, yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.

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So the father knew it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, your son lives. And he himself believed and his whole household.

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This is again a second sign that Jesus did when he had come out of Judea into Galilee.

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The royal official shows a desperation in faith. That looks more like hope or at least the seeds that are being planted there.

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He not only believed Jesus could heal, but how does he respond?

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How does he respond? Well he obeyed Jesus by listening to Jesus. And then by eventually returning home.

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Just a small demonstration of faith. In his earthly ministry, Jesus was looking for people to trust him, to listen to him, and to follow him in faith.

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He's still looking for those kind of people today. The Apostle is using specific language when he uses the word sign because it specifically describes

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Jesus's miracles. The point is that a sign points to a spiritual truth that is demonstrated in the miracle.

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In other words, we can have a careless or even superficial rejoicing in wonderful things that happen to us, while the whole time ignoring the spiritual reality.

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Ignoring the spiritual truth that it often points to. And this is essentially what Jesus is objecting to.

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The term wonders is bringing our attention to the marvel in the miracle. This is something that we see that cannot be explained.

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This is all in amazement. The word wonders appears 16 times in the

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New Testament. And it's important to note that the word wonders is never used alone.

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It is always combined with the word sign. Miracles are wonderful.

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They cannot be explained, yet they are not the most important thing. The most important thing is what

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God is doing in the miracle. When the Galileans had come to Jesus, simply on the basis of the wonderful miracles they knew about or witnessed him do, they demonstrated a lack of genuine trust that is the mark of a true disciple or follower.

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Ultimately, it's faith. The royal official believed that Jesus could heal.

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And for us as believers today, we can understand about, you know, this kind of faith. We can think about it in this way.

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I don't think it's enough for us to say that we believe that Jesus can take care of our problems. That's just lip service.

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We need to live our lives in such a way that we are behaving as if he can.

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Because he can. Think about it like this. When you pray about a trial or great need in your life, do you live as though you actually believe that Jesus can do what he has promised?

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This is the willingness of the Savior to aid, even when there is unbelief.

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Jesus responded to the superficial demands of the unbelief of the Galileans by doing good.

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He responded to their unbelief by healing the official's son. Not only is our

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Savior sympathetic to our unbelief, there is a willingness displayed in his amazing grace in the face of a demand for miracles that completely lacks faith.

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A faithless demand for miracles in unbelief, Jesus responds by saving not just the physical life of the boy, but the eternal salvation of the man, the eternal salvation of the boy, the eternal salvation of the household.

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These sign wonders were not illusions or parlor tricks. The official's son was 20 miles away.

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20 miles away. Jesus didn't even have to be there presently. He didn't have to be there presently or physically.

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He shows his deity and publicly displays his divine attributes as the

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Son of God in healing a person without being physically present. The restraints of time and space don't mean anything to the one who created time and space.

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Jesus spoke, the boy was healed. Distance was never a problem, and it's not a problem now.

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Christ is the master over space. As we go through various trials and adversities in life, there is no such space between ourselves and Christ in which

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Jesus cannot help us. And there is some debate here on the time which the boy was healed.

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If you count it as Jewish time, then it would have been about one o 'clock in the afternoon. If you count it as Roman time, it would have been about seven o 'clock in the evening.

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However, there's no reason to take this as Roman time because the timetable was only used for accounting by the

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Jewish people. And what I mean is that it was more of a legal method of computing time.

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For example, in determining when a lease expired or other legal matters, the normal Jewish person would have been using the

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Jewish time. That's how John is using it here. And that's an important clue for us as well in verse 52 when the question was posed to the official's slave.

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They answered by saying, yesterday at one o 'clock. So a subtle clue that we can sometimes overlook.

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The royal official had responded in belief to the point that he didn't ride back immediately.

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He must have spent the night. This had happened yesterday. Just think of that kind of faith.

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Think of that kind of faith. If your child was dying and you heard about this Jewish prophet who had performed some kind of a miracle in a desperate hope, fled to him 20 miles away.

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You're pleading with him. He brings up something about a demand to see miracles that you sort of may not even understand.

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He may be talking about someone else who had just been in Galilee. Jesus says, go, your son lives.

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And you spend the night. You return to your son the next day.

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Clearly something had happened. The desperate hope had turned into believing faith.

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In the last couple of verses we can see how the official's faith grew. Clearly he believed enough or was desperate enough to seek out and find

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Jesus. Then approaching Jesus to ask him to help his young boy. Then we see that he believed

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Jesus's statement. The faith transitioned to him believing in Jesus's assurance.

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Jesus had assured him not that his son would live. This wasn't a process of the boy starting to get better.

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The boy was instantaneously healed. Jesus assured him, your son lives.

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And then he acted. The way he acted was to spend the night and return the next day. The final conclusion is that not only him but his whole household believed in Jesus.

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And the way that the Apostle is using this terminology is that salvation had taken root.

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The seeds of faith had been planted and the planter, Jesus, had caused it to grow.

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And John points out crystal clear that the time when the official's son had immediately improved was the exact time precisely when the words left

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Jesus's mouth. John gives us this extra detail to show us how that served to strengthen the royal official's faith.

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Obviously not only would he be aware of this but so would his child, the whole household.

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And that's the point that the Apostle is making for us this morning. The whole household believed.

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John concludes this account by pointing out that this was the second sign wonder that Jesus had performed.

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Not the second miracle. Not the second miracle. There there is clear implication in the eyewitness account that Jesus had performed miracles beyond these two wonders at this point that are not recorded for us.

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These are special and unique because they don't highlight the miracle itself.

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Jesus is in command over the natural laws of creation. The miracles themselves are awesome but these miracles demonstrate a spiritual truth.

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Even though there is an unwillingness in mankind to believe, there is a willingness from the

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Savior to cause mankind to believe. Mankind's unbelief is no match for the

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Savior's power and willingness to save. This takes us back really to the purpose statement of this account.

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John chapter 20. Therefore many other signs Jesus also did in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

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Christ the Son of God and that believing you may have life in his name.

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There is a resistant heart in all of us and like the royal official he needed something drastic and tragic to wake him up to the reality of his needs.

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Even if there's an unwillingness to believe on our part there is a willingness on the part of Jesus to save.

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Actually despite our unwillingness to believe there is a willingness for Jesus to save and oftentimes we can be like the

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Galileans. Even professing believers today live their lives in a way that they do not walk in the way of Christ.

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We love the spectacular, we love the positive things, we love the big things. We don't love the humble, quiet, steady service that marks the genuine servant of God.

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Of course God does wonderful things in his creation. The works of God are extraordinary but oftentimes the usual way that God works is what we would consider the trivial or the common task.

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That's where true servanthood lies. Genuine faith will be demonstrated by genuine humbleness.

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A humble attitude that demonstrates a faith that shows a gratitude in the heart for God saving the sinner.

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What's awesome to consider in this account is that Jesus's power operates when there is no faith.

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While it is true that sometimes faith follows the miracles, like the official who sought

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Jesus out after the first sign wonder, it would be better if it had been the signs that had moved the

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Galileans to a saving faith. Consider Jesus's words in the upper room.

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John chapter 14, Jesus says, believe me that I am in the Father and the

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Father in me but if not believe because of the works themselves. They didn't even believe because of the works themselves.

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For us as believers Jesus's statement still applies today, not in judgment or lack of salvation.

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Instead of unless you people see signs and wonders you'll never believe, as believers we would probably hear unless you people get what you want out of life you'll never listen to my teaching.

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We should not remove ourselves from this account. This applies. The resistant heart of unbelief.

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Jesus looked for pure faith that simply trusted him, a faith that didn't need the support of any other knowledge of him, a faith that listened to the teaching of the master.

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The sign wonders are still a gift for us today because it's better to believe on the basis of the sign than not to believe at all.

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The willingness of the Savior to save sinners despite mankind's resistant heart of unbelief shows that Jesus is the

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Messiah, the promised Savior of the world predicted by the scriptures from the beginning.

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The willingness of the Savior to save sinners despite mankind's resistant heart of unbelief shows that Jesus is the

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Messiah, the promised Savior of the world predicted by the scriptures from the beginning.

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And we can think about this in this way as we see this really urgent trial that that the royal official is going through.

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The trials of our life often come upon us unexpectedly. We don't know they're gonna come but God does.

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We don't plan for them but yet they're here and that can change in the blink of an eye. The unexpected loss of life where one day, you know, three teenagers have a mother and the next day they don't.

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You know, one day young kids have a father and the next morning they don't.

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We don't plan when these things can happen. God knows and that's the part of of life and the sovereignty of God that we don't like to think about but it's actually an encouragement to think about that.

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All things are for good from God for those who love

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God and are called according to his purposes. Nothing comes into your life that hasn't first passed through the hand of God and sometimes it takes that unexpected trial or that tragedy to wake us up.

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These things can be used by God to turn a heart that is unwilling to believe into a heart that is desperate for help and when we're desperate for help there's a desperation, there's a hope.

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What do we do? We seek after the one who can help us and oftentimes

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God takes those, what we would say from a human perspective, from a finite human perspective, are these horrible horrific tragedies, these things that happen in life but not for God as he's saving people's souls.

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He's reminding the person who is in control of their lives. It's not them, it's

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God and so these things happen to us and God uses them to turn a heart that's unwilling to believe into a heart that is desperate for help and we find our

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Savior who is there to help us. In verses 46 through 54

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John testifies to the second sign wonder where Jesus healed a royal official's son without being physically present so that you can see that despite mankind's resistance to belief

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Jesus is willing to heal and save. The second sign wonder, the willful unbelief of mankind is demonstrated by the

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Galileans response in persistently desiring a constant display of miraculous signs while resisting

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Jesus's teaching versus the willingness of the Savior. The willingness of the

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Savior to save sinners despite mankind's resistance heart of unbelief shows that Jesus is the

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Messiah, the promised Savior of the world predicted by the Scriptures from the beginning. The sign wonder was a miracle that's pointed to a spiritual truth.