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Reading John 4:43-54 where Jesus returns to Cana and heals an official's son at Capernaum by the power of His word. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
You did not come to Saving Faith because you saw some kind of miracle or sign or wonder. You were brought to Saving Faith because you heard the word of Christ and believed it when we understand the text.
You are listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. Find videos and more at our website, www .tt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of the Gospel of John, finishing chapter 4 today. I'll start reading in verse 43 to the end of the chapter. The Apostle John writes, After the two days he departed for Galilee, for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.
So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they too had gone to the feast. So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water into wine.
And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
So Jesus said to him, Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe. The official said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus said to him, Go, your son will live. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.
As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So we asked them the hour when he began to get better. And they said to him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.
The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, your son will live and he himself believed and all of his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.
So we have finished Jesus time in Samaria. That was most of chapter 4. Remember that he and his disciples were on their way to Galilee in the first place. Instead of going the route around Samaria, they went straight through and they stopped at Sychar at Jacob's well.
Jesus was there at the well so he could get a drink. The disciples went into the village to find food and then they would bring the food back to Jesus. It was while he was sitting there at the well that he encountered the Samaritan woman and had a conversation with her revealed to her that he is the promised Messiah.
She goes running back into the village says this guy's a prophet. He told me everything that I ever did. Could this be the Christ and she brings back like an entire village with her and Jesus stays there for two days.
And as it says in verse 41 many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman it is no longer because of what you said that we believe for we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.
Now a point that I didn't make with this last week is that all of this happened because of this conversation that Jesus had with the woman at the well. She goes back into the village and brings people back with her to hear the word that Jesus is going to preach.
This is the same village that the disciples had just gone into to find food and who did they bring back with them nobody. So the disciples who know that Jesus is the Messiah did not bring anyone back with them to hear the Messiah teach it was this Samaritan woman the one whom Jews will not have anything to do with it as a matter of fact as a person of ill repute most of the Samaritans wouldn't have anything to do with her and yet she comes saying that the Messiah is there at the well.
He's at Jacob's well and the villagers go to see what it is that she's carrying on about and so then you have that statement from the from the other villagers in verse 41 where they say it's now no longer because of what you have said.
We didn't know what you were talking about. What were you carrying on about it's now because we have heard this man for ourselves and we know he is the Savior of the world because of what he has taught us what he is revealed to us about through the scriptures.
He is the fulfillment. He is the one that the scriptures were talking about would come and save his people from their sins. These people came to believe because of the word of Christ and it was this woman who told the village about Jesus and brought villagers back with her the disciples did not do that and this was quite a lesson for them to learn with Jesus saying to them.
My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there are yet four months and then come the Harvest look. I tell you lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for Harvest already.
The one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life so that sower and Reaper may rejoice together for here the saying holds true one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor others have labored and you have entered into their labor.
Now as I said Jesus was referring to not just John the Baptist, which is commonly the context that most people think he's referring to here. John the Baptist and his disciples which had started this ministry before Jesus who is now the fulfillment of that ministry.
He's also referring to the prophets what the prophets had done in the Old Testament, but I'm sure it was an embarrassment to these disciples that the very thing that he has said to them that they are to be doing is what this Samaritan woman was doing when they should have been doing it.
And and so this is a conviction. This should be a conviction in their hearts realizing she's doing what we should have done when we went into that village. We should have brought people back. Hey come and hear the Messiah because he had revealed himself as the Messiah to them.
He had not revealed himself to anybody else had not said that he was the Messiah. He says it to this Samaritan woman. And even though she argued with Jesus while they were having that conversation at the well yet she was so convinced by his statement that he is the Messiah that she went back to the village and told everybody the disciples who had been with him and saw Miracles.
It seems they were not even as convinced in their own hearts as this woman was though they had seen the Miracles and she had not and here the whole village comes back and here's Jesus preach and they say we know now that he is the Savior of the world because of what he has said Jesus has done no Miracles here.
It is only by preaching that these people have come to faith. The disciples have seen the Miracles. They have not responded as enthusiastically as this woman has now. They're going from Samaria into Galilee and they come back to Cana same place where Jesus had turned the water into wine.
So he's performed one Miracle there already and he's going to do another one with this official from Capernaum who's going to come to Jesus and ask him to heal his son. So we've gone from a place where Jesus has done no Miracles and a whole village comes to faith and now he's going into a place where not as many people believe verse 43 again after the two days after the two days that he was there in Samaria.
He departed for Galilee for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his hometown. Now, this is a different context than what we read in the Synoptic Gospels in Matthew Mark and Luke Jesus makes the same statement here that a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household and when he said this at Nazareth, he did not do any Miracles there.
No mighty works Matthew 13 58 because of their unbelief, but the statement that we have in Matthew Mark and Luke is different. It's worded different. There's a different context and a different application than what we have here in the Gospel of John.
The reason why Jesus was going to Galilee was because they did not have faith and he was going to perform signs there so that they would have faith. And that's the reason why he makes this statement at least in the context of John's Gospel for him to say a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.
So he's going there that they may see and believe in the Synoptic Gospels in Matthew Mark and Luke. It's specifically Nazareth where he will not perform signs because they do not believe so he comes to Cana.
He's already done one Miracle there. He's about to do another one and this actually becomes a condemnation of Nazareth for him to do this. He'll do Miracles there, but he won't do Miracles in Nazareth.
They wanted him to heal their sick and he wouldn't do it because of their unbelief. They didn't actually believe in who he was. They just wanted a handout. That's all they wanted. They didn't want to believe Jesus was the Savior of the world.
And so therefore it would be wasting his time there. He was not going to improve anyone's life by healing the sick who would not believe that he was the Messiah. They were just going to do okay for a little while, but then eventually they're going to die and face judgment.
So he was going to go to those who would receive his word. Faith does not come by seeing these signs performed. Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ and they had closed their ears off to hearing that message.
The Samaritans heard it. And now as Jesus comes into Cana to perform Miracles, this kind of becomes a condemnation of Nazareth. I'll perform Miracles here. I won't do it for you. And in Cana there are going to be people who are going to come to believe specifically a man from Capernaum who was a Gentile.
So here's our series of stories that we have kind of following the trail of what John is laying out here. Back in John 3, Jesus had a conversation with Nicodemus, a prominent Jewish leader and teacher in Jerusalem and told him that in order to see the kingdom of God, you must be born again.
You must be born from above. You must be born of God, the Holy Spirit, transforming your heart from a person dead in your sins and your trespasses to someone who is alive in the spirit. And Jesus pointing out to him, the Old Testament prophets had prophesied about this.
So you should know this. Why is it that you as a teacher of Israel don't understand what it is that I am saying? That you must be born again in the spirit of God, not following rules and regulations. That doesn't do it.
It is the work of the spirit in your heart that will change you into a person who is now adopted into the family of God. And furthermore, Jesus said to Nicodemus that this was not just for the Jewish people.
The Messiah was for the whole world. This work that God was going to do through this expectant Savior was going to be for people from all nations, not just from the Jewish people. And that in itself was a controversial statement to make since the Jews believed that the Messiah was coming specifically for them.
So where does Jesus go on from there? He goes into Samaria, the very people that the Jews hated the most passionately. They hated the Samaritans and Jesus shares the gospel with them and they believe his words there without signs or wonders.
This is showing the commission that Jesus gave to his disciples. He's doing it himself. And then he's going to tell his disciples to do this very thing. You will be my witnesses Acts 1 8 in Jerusalem in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
And that's what Jesus is doing. He has shared the gospel with Nicodemus in Jerusalem. And of course he's done it there in Judea. He's gone to Samaria and now he's going to go to the ends of the earth.
Yeah, even though he's in Galilee. How do I equate that to ends of the earth? Well, because a Gentile comes to him an official in Capernaum whose son was ill. This guy was likely a centurion, but it's not the same as the centurion story like we read in Matthew that man's servant was sick.
This is a man whose son is ill and is a totally different situation here. So this is a man to whom Christ is going to reveal himself wouldn't do it at Nazareth his own hometown. They would not believe in him, but he comes back to Cana where one miracle had been performed already and because of the witness of that miracle this man from Capernaum comes to him and asks that he would heal his son verse 45.
So when he came to Galilee the Galileans welcomed him having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast for they too had gone to the feast. What's their response to Jesus coming to them? Hey, the miracle worker is here.
Come on in we got some sick for you to heal. So verse 46 he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had made the water wine and at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill when this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee.
He went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son for he was at the point of death now consider the words that Jesus says to him when the when the official asks for Jesus to do this verse 48.
So Jesus said to him unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe. Now perhaps Jesus words here are better understood if I were to phrase it as a question. Jesus doesn't phrase it as a question, but maybe it would help you understand it better if I did phrase it as a question.
So Jesus said to him unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe. Does that help you kind of understand the context a little bit more there? It's almost as if Jesus is challenging him. He's not asking him a question as though he's going to get an answer, but he's challenging him and the you here when he says unless you see signs and wonders, he's not necessarily saying exclusively to this official unless you see signs and wonders, but but this is all being done publicly.
I mean, there's people around so he's saying this more to all of the Galileans or maybe even to in the broader sense to Gentiles unless you believe unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.
So do you really have you really have to have me do a sign or a wonder in order to believe in me? And again, this is a challenge. This is Jesus saying you must understand why I do this. It's not just so you would have a well son.
What's the point of doing these signs and wonders so that you would know who I am and that I have come from God and the word that I say to you is God's word. That's what it is that Jesus is communicating.
The Samaritans didn't even need the signs and wonders in order to believe that word, but he comes to gain. He comes to Galilee. I was combining Galilee and Cana there Gaina. He comes to Galilee again and does Miracles there so that they would believe but but he's not necessarily congratulating them for this.
The Samaritans didn't need the Miracles you do and understand the point of the Miracles. Do you have to have a sign or a wonder in order to believe you should know by the words that I say who I've come from that I've come from the father and he's going to expound upon this in much greater detail a little bit later on us, especially in Chapter 6 once we get to Chapter 6.
So here with compassion that he has on this man and the people of Galilee he does what this official asks of him to do the official said to him. Sir come down before my child dies and Jesus said to him go your son will live and this is still part of the challenge that Jesus is giving to this man.
Will you believe because you saw something or will you believe because I say it? So here's here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to say it. I'm going to say your son will live now show me that you have faith and the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him didn't have to see the sign or the wonder first.
He believed the word Jesus spoke and went on his way verse 51 as he was going down his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better and they said to him yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him the father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him your son will live and he himself believed and all of his household.
So now it's more than just okay. I believe this man is going to heal my son. Now this man believes that Jesus can heal his soul. Now it's more than just believing that a miracle is going to be done by the word of this man.
It's knowing that I can be saved by the word of this man and he believed in Jesus that he he was from the father full of grace and truth from John 1 and again this faith that's awakened in his heart. This is not something that is is done by the power of his will to move from one state of disposition to another.
This is the power of God at work in his life that he would go from being an unbeliever to a believer and that he would even share this testimony with the people in his household and they would believe verse 54.
This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. The first of course was Jesus turning the water into wine the previous time that he had been there. Now he comes back.
He performs this other sign the people see it specifically. It's the official son who sees it not just that this man can do miracles, but also that he is who he says that he is. Now we're going to get to another story that kind of carries that point even further that it's by the word of Christ.
We are to trust in and not by any miracle that he performs when he performs a healing at the pool on the Sabbath in chapter 5 and I'll explain that a little bit more tomorrow. But as we conclude with the lesson today, let me just present this to you.
It is not because of signs or wonders that you are saved. It is by faith in the word of Christ. There are so many people and so many teachers out there who will say that the gospel is signs and wonders.
You need to perform signs and wonders. People will come to faith through signs and wonders. No, they won't. They'll come to expect signs and wonders. Even when Jesus performed the signs the people did not believe those who saw them.
It was by the word of Christ that people came to faith. The signs and wonders were to point to who Jesus is, the son of God who came to take away our sins by his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave.
And we know that he had the power to do these things because of the power that he had over everything else. He had the power over the sickness of this boy from a distance to say, go your son will be well and he was well.
And so by these signs and wonders people know it is verified that Jesus is who he says that he is and he is able to do what he says that he is going to do. But it's not because of the miracles that people have faith.
It's because of his word. And so it is his word that we must trust in first and foremost above all. Don't wait for God to show himself in your life through some thing. And if God does this for me, then I'll believe all the more.
You should believe because of his word Bible study and prayer are the tools that we have been given to communicate with God. God talks to us through the Bible. We talk to him through prayer. If you ever get to a point where you feel like that's not enough for me anymore and you feel like I'm just something's lacking.
I don't feel fulfilled with Bible study and prayer. I need something else than what you're communicating to God is that the tools that he has given you to grow in a relationship with him aren't good enough.
And if you try to rely on some other things to facilitate that relationship that fellowship that you have with God you're going to lose that fellowship because there is no other way you don't grow and you're in your faith and knowledge of God and relationship with his son Jesus through any other method except by studying his word applying it to your life and communicating to him through prayer humbling yourself to cast all your cares and anxieties upon him because he cares for you as Peter said in first Peter chapter 5.
These are the blessings that God has given to us that we may grow in fellowship with him and in that process we are sanctified in Ephesians chapter 5. It specifically says that Christ sanctifies his church with his word.
So this is the way we grow with God be thankful for that. Be thankful for Bible study and prayer the hardest work has been done. Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins. He took your sins upon himself and has given you his righteousness and now it is through his word that you grow in faith and it is through prayer that your mind becomes all the more shaped into Christ likeness a Christ mindedness.
So thank God for that today. Thank you Lord for Bible study and prayer. Amen.
Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .utt .com.