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We look once again to God's Word to John chapter 4. We have two sections really left in John chapter 4. We have all the way through verse 54, is it possible that Reformed Baptists could get through that much text in a Sunday evening service?
I'm not sure, it might be a record if we do. But it would be an appropriate breaking point before launching into chapter 5 and some of the stuff that is found there. So I'm going to make the attempt. So you all need to buckle up the belts and take a deep breath.
We'll see what we can do this evening as we finish up the story of Jesus' time there in Samaria and then look at another incident in his life specifically in the ministry in regards to the subject of a healing that a lot of people struggle with, but we'll see exactly why that is in just a moment.
So we look back at John chapter 4 and we finish up beginning at verse 43 after the, well actually I'm sorry, verse 39 is where we're picking up. From that city, many of the Samaritans believed in him because the word of the woman who testified, he told me all the things that I have done.
So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking him to stay with them and he stayed there two days. Many more believed because of his word and they were saying to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed the savior of the world.
After the two days, he went forth from there into Galilee for Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans received him having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem with the feast for they themselves also went to the feast.
And so we have the conclusion of the story of the Samaritans, a very important story, a story that echoes much of what we see in the synoptic gospels where there are so many indications that the gospel is not going to just be for the Jews, it's going to be sent out to the whole world, even though very obviously the disciples struggled with this.
That's why it had to be repeated so many times. That's why the sheet had to be lowered from heaven three times for Peter. And even after that, Peter still ended up compromising. There was a deep, deep tradition that had to be dealt with in the minds of the disciples.
And so we see that many of the Samaritans come out of the city, but it says many of the Samaritans believed in him. Doesn't say all. It doesn't say everybody. It doesn't say everybody that came out. There might have been some who came out just for interest to see what kind of a person this was because of the woman's testimony.
But it doesn't say they all believed. And you do have to wonder about those that did not. Here in the very presence of the Son of God, yet there are many, both Jew and Samaritan who heard Jesus speak that turned away.
It has always been an issue of the Spirit of God opening hearts and minds. If it was simply a matter of man's ability, no one had the ability to speak like Jesus, and yet there were still those who did not believe.
So they believed in him because of the word of the woman, but they testified, that it testified to them, he told me all the things that I have done. So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.
Can you imagine how thrilled the disciples were when Jesus announced that they were going to be staying for two days? I'm sure there were smiles all around. Actually, there undoubtedly were looks of absolute terror and panic on the part of many of the disciples at that point, and amazement, like this doesn't fit any of our expectations of the Messiah, and don't you know who the Samaritans are, and I hope the word doesn't get out back in Judea or Galilee that we did this, and there's all sorts of things that were happening in their minds.
But he stays with them for two days, and we're not given any discussion whatsoever of what Jesus says. I mean, can you imagine if we just had a meaningful summarization of what Jesus said in those two days, that would be longer than the entire Gospel of John.
We are given no information whatsoever, other than many more believed because of his word. So he must have been, in some way, shape, or form, speaking of what salvation is, of who he was. What were they believing?
He had told the woman directly that he himself was the Messiah, was the Christ. And so, what would be the content of that preaching? We're not told. All we know is many more believed because of his word, and they were saying to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed Savior of the world.
Now, that type of terminology is not something that is found much in the writings of the Samaritans, and so this seems to be something that Jesus himself, he spoke to them in such a way that they understood he is Savior of the world.
What an amazing thing that is. And so, after the two days, he went forth from there into Galilee, and there was a lot of other Samaritan villages he could have gone to, but he goes back to Galilee. Why?
Well, it's God's purpose. And if it was his purpose to have started the Samaritan ministry or something, he could have done so. He certainly was received there in an amazing fashion, but that was not God's purpose.
And it's very interesting, at this point we have a lot of different interpretations amongst the commentators, because it says, for Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
It sounds like what is being said there is Jesus went from Samaria into Galilee because a prophet does not have honor in his own country, but his own country would not be Samaria. So there's been a lot of confusion, a lot of discussion concerning what Jesus could mean by saying that a prophet has no honor in his own country as he goes back to Galilee, because especially it says, verse 45, so when he came to Galilee, the Galileans received him.
But notice why they received him. Having seen all the things he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they themselves also went to the feast. Now there's a lot of discussion, don't have time to get into it right now, a lot of discussion about the chronology issues in the Gospels, and it's worthwhile discussion, it can get very, it can really get in the weeds, get pretty deep when you're trying to figure out, for example, we all just assume that Jesus' ministry was about three years long.
But where do you get that from? It comes from comparing a lot of texts with other texts, but there's a lot of confusion as to, in John, which feasts are which, and which one's being referred to, and all sorts of things like that, and there have been lots of theories propounded down through the years from as short as one year to three years or maybe even longer.
But there is a feast to which these Galileans had gone and they had seen the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, and here's the problem. In John, when people follow Jesus, not because they know who he is, but they're simply seeing things that he's done, that's normally not a good thing.
Think about John chapter two, the wedding at Cana of Galilee. They see, but Jesus does not entrust himself to them because he realizes it's a surface level faith. John chapter eight, the people hear Jesus talking with some of the Jews, and they go, wow, this guy sounds great, I'm going to believe in him.
By the end of the chapter, they're picking up stones to stone him. And so, could it be that in light of what's going to happen immediately after this, that what is being said here is, well, a prophet has no honor in his own country, but that's only demonstrated when he goes to his own country, and so he's going to Galilee.
And it is interesting that chapter five, where the narrative's going to be really picking up is where the resistance to Jesus really begins to pick up. You see it in chapter five, you see by the end of chapter six, you have all the people walking away, chapter seven, his brothers, chapter eight, the real, picking up stones to stone him, et cetera, et cetera.
So you see this growing animosity and resistance, and possibly that is what is being indicated by the use of this proverb about the prophet having no honor in his own country. And so, this is what takes place.
They leave Samaria, having had what could only be described as a successful trip, in the sense that it was not expected by the disciples whatsoever, and there was definitely seeds sown there that would end up having a great harvest, especially after the Lord's resurrection and the preaching of the gospel there.
And so, verse 46, therefore he came again to Cana of Galilee. Well, we've seen something happen here before, and we've seen Jesus not entrust himself to the individuals who saw him there working that miracle in Cana of Galilee.
Therefore he came to Cana of Galilee, where he had made the water wine, and there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum. Now, if you have one of those maps at the back of your Bible, you can sort of see where these various places are.
They're not that far away from one another, and so you can sort of see how far these individuals were traveling. We won't go into that this evening, but I want to read the story, and I want you to think as I read the story, of other healing miracles in the life of Jesus, other miracles that we've seen when we think of Matthew and Mark, others of the gospels.
When this royal, okay, so we're told he's a royal official, and we're told whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him and was imploring him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
So Jesus said to him, unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe. The royal official said to him, Lord, or sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus said to him, go, your son lives.
The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off. As he was now going down, so he's going from Cana down to Capernaum. As he was starting off, his slaves met him, saying that his son was alive.
So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better, then they said 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. This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when he came out of Judea into Galilee. And so here we have this story. Now immediately one of the issues that is raised is that there are many who will say, well, look, this is a compilation of other stories from the synoptic gospels.
And so if you go to that place that I've said to you many, many times before, is one of the most dangerous places for the Christian soul. It's called a Christian bookstore. You must remember that as you walk down the aisles of that Christian bookstore, and I'm not talking about the aisles with the little figurines and little things you can put on your bathroom wall where you take a Bible passage that has absolutely nothing to do with you, but you apply it to you, put it on a nice pretty picture, whatever it is.
I'm not talking about that section. And I'm not talking necessarily about all the silly books with their silly theologies. It seems to me the most dangerous place is probably the commentary aisle, because many Christians raised within the church have the assumption that, well, if someone's going to write a commentary, they're going to really believe the Bible and they're going to let the words speak, and so I'm going to be able to find all sorts of stuff here that'll be very useful to me and very helpful to me and things like that.
Well, the problem is that that's probably the most dangerous place you're going to go. And the reason is that these days, unfortunately, the commentaries that are published in the modern period are by and large and in predominant number written from a perspective on the Bible very unlike our own.
And this is especially true, especially true of the Old Testament commentaries. You'll find, I'm not saying there aren't good works being produced today, but they are few and far between in comparison to that which you would start to read and you would go, well, that's not what I expected to find there.
This person seems to indicate that this never happened. What's going on here? And it's because of the fact that, once again, I hate to have to be the one to remind us of this, but we are not in the majority.
As we look around this evening on a Sunday night, as people are struggling to find a seat here, you might have already gotten that indication that we are not in the majority. Well, we're not in the majority on a number of things.
And you might say, well, it's just because, well, it's just because we're Calvinists. Well, no, no, that's, that's part of it, no question about that. Yep, there is part of that. But sadly, even more so, to be in a position of actually believing that the scriptures are consistent with themselves, believing that in this thing called inspiration, that this is God's very word, that it has the form that he desired it to have, that it's supernatural, it's authoritative, and here's the big thing, that you can actually seek to come to understand a fundamental systematic theology on the basis of scripture.
That puts you in a very small group of people today when it comes to the, what is considered to be the larger religious community that would identify itself in some broad fashion as Christian. And that's certainly the case in what is being published, and that's certainly the case in what is being taught.
And so when modern scholarship looks at something like this story in verse, beginning in verse 46, there is such a skepticism concerning the existence of the miraculous to begin with. There is such a skepticism concerning Jesus' ability to heal even directly, let alone here, by distance.
This is a distance healing. This is a supernatural incident where clearly Jesus has to have knowledge of what is going on far from any place he has ever been, and then can exercise authority over disease remotely.
This is an amazing ability, and hence modern scholarship, which is very queasy about the supernatural, will look at a story like this and they'll go, well, you have the healing of Jairus' daughter in Matthew and Mark, and Mark goes into much more detail in that particular instance, but Jesus actually goes.
You have the centurion story, and in all probability this is just John taking elements of these stories he's heard and weaving them together. Well, I have a lot of problems with that, and it's not the knee-jerk reaction of if a liberal said it, therefore it must not be true type of a response.
The problem is it not only has a very low view of John, John's honesty and his purposes, but it also has no eye to maintaining a consistent reading of John's text, and I'm particularly sensitive about that because I've spent so much time in John chapter 6 trying to find somebody that could come up with a reading of John chapter 6 that does not teach the absolute sovereignty of God and salvation.
I'm actually tomorrow going to be dealing with some more attempts on people's part to get around that teaching in John chapter 6, so we want to be careful wherever we are in the gospel, and there's a reason why John puts this story where he does.
When you think about it, we are going to, in chapter 5, leave Galilee and go to Judea, Jerusalem, and there is going to be, like I said, that almost immediate escalation that's going to mark chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, 11, and then all the way into the beginning of chapter 12 when Jesus ends his public ministry and begins the private ministry of the disciples right before his betrayal.
And in chapter 5, by verse 18, the Jews are seeking to kill Jesus because he has made himself equal with God, as we will see when we get to that section, which prompts that tremendous discussion in chapter 5 of the relationship between the Father and the Son.
And so, why would, was John, did John just have some extra papyri that he needed to fill here? I mean that's almost what people are suggesting. Instead, we have Jesus going from Samaria to Galilee, and he works this miracle while he is in Galilee, and then very quickly John moves him back out of Galilee back into Judea.
So this story has to function in some way in John's narrative. And if it's just simply a made-up story, I can't see what its relevance would be. And so you have the problem of the fact that it seems that what you have is a demonstration of Jesus' incredible power, even there in Galilee, where there is going to be, as we're going to see multiple times, people who will see things on the part of Jesus, and they will have a surface-level faith, but it's not the type of faith that will cause them to be true disciples, because John chapter 6 is coming.
And that's going to take place back in Galilee. That's when Jesus has gone back to Galilee, and he's got all these followers. And then that lengthy narrative where he focuses upon himself as the bread of life, what happens at the end of John chapter 6?
They're all gone. They're all gone. And all you have left are twelve confused disciples, and one of whom is a devil. And, really, I think what John is painting for us is, here Jesus goes into Galilee, and he can work these tremendous miracles.
He is able to give life remotely. And here is this royal official. We're not told anything more. That's probably not the term that would be used as centurion. And that's why I think if we're honest with this text, this isn't some compilation of other stories.
There are too many differences. Far too many differences. If you just simply let it speak for what it speaks, the assumption upon the parts of so many of those commentaries at the Christian bookstore is that, well, there was probably only one major healing incident, and each of the disciples, each of the gospel writers, are sort of crafting it and using it in their own way.
Well, that wouldn't explain the huge crowds following Jesus around looking for healing, would it? Not in any way. And so, here you have a specific incident. It doesn't seem that it is narrated elsewhere.
You don't have to conflate it into everything else. And it takes place when this court official, this ruling official, it's an interesting term, it's sort of a servant of the king in some fashion, hears that Jesus has come out of Judea and has come into Galilee.
And so he goes to him, and his son, it's specifically his son. In other stories, for example, it's Pidas, which can be a son, but can also be a servant. This is specifically his son, specifically in Capernaum.
And so this man comes to Jesus, and he asks that he would heal him, because he is about to die. And Jesus' response is very interesting. Unless you see signs, unless you have signs and miracles, you will not believe.
And this man's response is to remain faithful in asking for the grace of God. He simply responds to him, Lord, come and heal me. Come down before my child dies. There he does use the term for a child, and hence son-child can be used in parallel.
And so he doesn't engage Jesus' words regarding the sign. He doesn't talk about the marvel or the wonder. And he doesn't ask for one. He doesn't ask to see something. He just simply asks Jesus to come with him.
He is in desperate straits. And so he remains faithful in asking. And so Jesus' response to him is, go, your son lives. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't think that's what the man was expecting.
And this is one of the primary things where this story differs from, for example, the healing of Jairus' daughter. Because Jesus actually goes and he raises her up. Could it be that this royal official is not Jewish?
Hard to say. He uses language. I mean, the term Lord that is used there, you always have to be very careful. Sometimes kurios has deep, deep meaning. Sometimes it's just simply a word of respect. It all depends on the level of knowledge that the person has.
This person believes that Jesus has the ability to raise up his son. And so in that context, he says, please come down before my child dies. And Jesus' response would call for an act of faith in the Lord.
And he would say, come down before on the part of this individual. Because if you go to a doctor and you say, come quickly to my house, my child is dying, and that person says, just go back home, they're doing fine now.
You have to have a tremendous amount of trust that this individual knows what they're talking about. And this individual is asking for supernatural healing. So for Jesus, simply to say to him, go, your child lives, your son lives.
I would have wanted more information. Are you saying that you know that he's gotten better? He was alive when I left, yes, but couldn't you, there would be so many questions in my mind. And this isn't the same situation as when that centurion does come to Jesus and says, you don't even need to come down.
I'm a man under authority and I sell people go and go and no, it's none of those things. Instead, Jesus' only words are go, your son lives. And the man believed the word which Jesus spoke and he went.
So here you have an obedient faith. And some of you looking at, some of you do look at the original language, you might notice, well, that's that different form of belief. That's not the ongoing. Well, the ongoing form wouldn't work here because you're talking about a specific word that was given.
It doesn't say the man believed in Jesus. The man believed what Jesus said. And therefore, he went. So, there is a command, go, your son lives. And the man's obedient to that. He acts in faith. And isn't that the contrast that we're going to see over and over again?
Especially in John chapter 6, they're going to hear the word which Jesus said. And what do they say in John chapter 6? His word is hard. This is a hard saying. And instead of believing what do they do?
They turn around and walk away. There's the contrast. There's the contrast. This man hears the word of Christ and he believes and he goes. And as he's going, his servants come to him and saying, tell him, your child lives.
And I don't know about you, I think about this. And we do have that story in Mark. Remember, Jesus is going to raise the young daughter. And you have the healing of the woman with the issue of blood. And then at that point, the people come and tell the father the child has died.
And just as that father is seeing those people coming from the house, that feeling in the gut, that horrific feeling that he would have. What did this man have when he saw his servants coming to him? Because it said he believed.
So when he saw them coming, did he anticipate that they were going to say, your son lives? Or was there some doubt? Or was there some hesitation? Was there some fear? Maybe once they were close enough he could see by the looks on their faces that all was well.
I don't know. But since it says the man believed the word which Jesus spoke to him, I would imagine he was anticipating the fact they tell him, your child lives. And so he asks of them. He inquires of them.
And it's more of a technical term to inquire because it reminds me sort of like if you were giving a police deposition. And so what time did you hear those gunshots last night? Well, you know, I looked at the clock.
And so you're trying to put together a timeline. And so there's this inquisition. So when did my son start getting better? And they said to him it was the seventh hour when the fever left him. And I don't know about you, but I've had a fever all of a sudden just break.
You know, you're just burning up. You just feel horrible. And then take a few deep breaths. And the world's not on fire anymore. And you want to start eating something and drinking something. That chicken noodle soup sounds really good about now actually, you know.
And you can just tell something has changed. And back in the olden days my mom would get out that thermometer and stick it in your mouth. Now we can just take those things and zap people from a distance and find out exactly what their temperature is.
That is so cool. I love technology. But a whole lot better than it was back then. I don't want to hold this thing in my mouth forever. But your fever has gone down. You've turned the corner. And it wasn't long as a kid you wanted to be out there playing again.
And so that fever left him. And therefore once they said it was the seventh hour, then the father knew that that was the very hour in which Jesus said your son lives. And he believed and all of his household.
And so the man comes to his household and he narrates a story for them. And he says now here's the thing you need to understand. It was the seventh hour when Jesus said to me your son lives. And that's exactly when it took place.
We were far away from here. And he healed my son remotely. And they believed in Jesus. This is a sign that Jesus does. Having come into Judea out of Galilee. This is a sign of who he is. This is a sign of his character and of being the one sent by the father into the world.
Now when we consider and make application of this, we have to understand that Jesus we certainly do believe, we do pray for those who become ill amongst us. How many other people were there in that day who had great illness but did not seek Jesus?
How many were there in that day? We must remember that such things as infant mortality and so many different kinds of diseases that we don't even give much thought to any longer could prove to be fatal in that day.
Yes Jesus did many healings but there were still many in the world that lived in his day that were not healed. And the question that is always before us is does God have the power over his own creation to remove physical pain and suffering?
Yes he does. Is there a purpose in the suffering that takes place in this world? I don't see how we can read the Bible and find any other answer than yes. Do we always know what that purpose is? No we do not.
So what are we called to do? We're called to faithfully seek God's mercy and grace. And we pray that God, we know that God has the power to lift up and to heal and God has the power to draw near and to comfort and it's only when we take the position that we somehow know what is best for God to do that we get into trouble in balancing these things together.
It was not this man's faith that forced Jesus to heal this child. This was God's intention and purpose in weaving together these signs and these testimonies to who Jesus was. And that means the original sickness was part of God's purpose as well.
And so in closing the question I would ask each one of us is there are times when God's answer to us in our prayers and our lives is very short and to the point. I'm in control, go do what I've called you to do.
And that's basically what happened here. That's basically what happened here. Jesus says to the man, go, your son lives. No explanations. No, now I have the power to remotely heal your son and I know who your son is, I know your son's name and I just did this.
That would have made it easier for the man, I suppose, but that's not what he does. He says go, your son lives. I would have liked a lot longer explanation. But you know what? I'm not in a position to demand that.
I'm in no position to demand that. And when your Lord says go, I'm in charge. I'm in charge. Then we are under obligation to do what we're commanded to do. What happens? Now this man is only coming to believe.
He believes Jesus has this ability. Once he has the whole story, he and his whole household believe. What's the nature of that belief? Well, do they even have a full understanding of who Jesus is? It doesn't even seem that they understand as much as the Samaritans that he's the Savior of the world.
They don't get two days worth of preaching. It's more sowing of the seed. Clearly the gospel would have come to them at a later point in time and they would have embraced that. That would be my assumption.
We're not told. But what about believers? What do we do when the answer is no? What do we do when in an incredibly difficult situation God says, no, it is not my purpose. It is not my intention to do what you've asked me to do in this situation.
I'm always going to be just. I'm always going to be righteous. What you're asking me to do is to extend grace and mercy in this situation. And though I so often am gracious and merciful, there are times when I bring justice.
There are times when I ask you to be patient. It's going to be down the road if I'm going to do something. And sometimes God just says, no, you live in a nation that's under my judgment. And you're going to see that judgment around you.
What do we do? Do we go and continue to serve? Or do we put our heels in and start complaining and start rejecting God's right to command us as our Lord? These are questions we have to ask. The Lord says go.
The only question is where and how fast? What do you want me to do? He knew where he had to go. Normally we know what we need to be doing to. Obedient faith. We see it in its simplest form here. In someone who doesn't have a fraction of the knowledge of who Jesus is that we have.
Are we as obedient as that person who had that tiny little bit of trust, that mustard seed faith? That's a question each one of us must ask as we consider these words. And so here's John chapter 4. And very quickly there is going to be a transition in chapter 5 into the great escalation of tension between Jesus and the Jewish leadership.
And it's in that context we're going to have some of the greatest revelation of who Jesus is. And that always seems to be the case, is that it is in conflict. It's in the conflict in the Old Testament with the false gods.
It's the conflict of Jewish leaders in the New Testament. We have some of the greatest revelations not only of what God's purposes are, but of who our Lord and Savior is as well. And so that is where we will continue on in the next time we have the opportunity of being together and continuing our study in this series.
Let's pray together. Our gracious Heavenly Father, once again we do thank you for these words that you have preserved for us, that you draw our hearts out to. We are reminded as we gather together as believers this evening, when we hear your word, when we consider the commands of Jesus, why is it that we want to be obedient?
Why is it that we immediately start thinking of what this might mean for us? And it's because your Spirit is at work within our lives. We thank you for that. We do not want to take that for granted. We know as an extension of your grace, you are conforming us to your image, it's your purpose, it's all about you.
And we are thankful for that. And so Lord as we prepare for a week of service to you, may we do so with an obedient faith. When you say go, Lord may we be found quickly obeying, faithfully obeying you.
We thank you for your word once again. Give us traveling mercies as we leave this place. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.