A Father's Plea Ends in Faith | Sermon 01/22/2023

Apologia Utah

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Let's go to John chapter 4. John chapter 4. We're going to be in verses 43 -54.

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We're finishing chapter 4. We will be in chapter 5 next. Lord's Day service.

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We're finishing out John 4. The title of this sermon today, church, is

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A Father's Plea Ends in Faith. A Father's Plea Ends in Faith.

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So starting in verse 43 of the Gospel according to John chapter 4, hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true

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God. After the two days, Jesus went forth from there into Galilee.

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For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. So when

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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. Therefore, He came again to Cana of Galilee, where He had made the water wine.

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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 imploring

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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 simply will not believe.

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The royal official said to Him, Sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus said to Him, Go, your son lives.

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The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off. And as He was now going down,

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His slaves met Him, saying that His son was living. So He inquired of them the hour when

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He began to get better. They said to Him, Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left

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Him. So the father knew that it was that hour in which Jesus said to him,

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Your son lives. And he himself believed in his whole household. This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when

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He had come out of Judea into Galilee. Thus ending the reading of God's holy and inspired word.

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Let's pray quickly, church. Lord, I ask You to speak through me today. Lord, I ask that You would edify

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Your people. God, I recognize that there's no convincing I can do to Your people today.

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There's no crafty argument I can make, Lord, that would make them believe the things of Your word.

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It is by Your Spirit, Lord, that You grant this belief. It is by Your Spirit, Lord, that You transform our thinking and our hearts.

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And it's by Your Spirit, Lord, that You edify Your people. So would You please, Lord, encourage and teach

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Your people today. Illuminate the Scriptures by the Spirit, the same

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Spirit who inspired them. Lord, I ask this by faith in Christ's name.

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Amen. So in the Hebrews 11 Hall of Faith, which is a memorial to the heroes of the faith in the

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Old Testament, we see the name of Gideon named in Hebrews 11.

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Now he may have ended his ministry as judge over Israel with great faith, but as most of us know, it didn't start out that way.

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At the time of Gideon, there were no kings, only judges over Israel. And during this time, there was this cycle of unfaithfulness to the one true and living

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God. And then due to their sin, Yahweh the Lord would send foreign invaders to the people and they would seek repentance and they would ask for a deliverer and God would use these judges to help deliver

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His people from the oppression. Midian was the nation that was oppressing

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Israel at this time. And so we come to this scene where Gideon is outside, he's in this wine vat and he's bashing at the wheat.

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He's beating the wheat so as to, of course, take the chaff away from the wheat grain.

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And he did it in this wine vat so the Midianites wouldn't see him and then take their grain and take their food.

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And so he was in this hiding, but then the angel of the

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Lord came to Gideon, okay? And the Lord said that through him, through Gideon, the

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Lord said, I will destroy the Midianites, I will destroy Israel's enemies, okay? But Gideon, then like many of our

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Old Testament heroes, starts listing off his inadequacies, which I think that's probably what we would all do.

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It's like, are you sure? And so he says, my family is the least in Manasseh, I'm the youngest of all my brothers, are you sure you're gonna deliver

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Israel through me? He's frantic.

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Nevertheless, the Lord states that he will be with Gideon and he even assures him that he will give

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Gideon the victory against Midian. So Gideon was a man who started with little faith, he continued to need signs from God to feel certain about God's promises.

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Even in his first encounter with the Lord Almighty, he asks God to prove himself in what he said with a sign.

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He brings out the meat of a young goat, he brings out some flour, an ephah of flour, and he brings out some broth, and on a stone, he sets the goat meat, and he sets the flour, and he pours the broth over it, and all of a sudden, the

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Lord consumes all that with fire. And Gideon goes, okay, all right,

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I'll do what you say, Lord, you are the Lord, I'll do what you say. And so he does this, and even then, the

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Lord promises, you're not gonna die. If you do what I say, you're not gonna die. This is what happens.

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He will be successful, it is sure, the Lord God will make certain of it, but it says that in the text, he was too afraid.

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He still did it though, he gathered men of his household, he didn't do it by himself, he grabbed more men because he was afraid, and he went to the city, and he tore down the altar to Baal, and he tore down the

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Asherah pole, and people came outside and saw these idols destroyed, and they were upset, who did this?

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But again, the Lord rescued him, the Lord was faithful, he did according to what he said.

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Despite this, and despite seeing this work successfully, seeing God's promises, hearing that he will defeat the

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Midianites in Judges 6 .36 -40, another test comes from Gideon.

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It says, then Gideon said to God, if you will deliver Israel through me, as you have spoken, behold,

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I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and the ground around it is dry, then

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I will know that you will actually deliver Israel through me. So, the

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Lord does exactly as Gideon had asked, and the fleece of wool was covered in dew, the ground was dry around it, he picks it up and he even squeezes it, and it says that he's able to fill a bowl with the water from the dew of the wool, the fleece, wool.

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And even then, Gideon doesn't have faith that God will indeed help him to defeat

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Midian, because then he says, do not let your anger burn against me. I'm gonna ask one more thing, okay?

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Please let me test once more with the fleece. Now, let the fleece be dry, and everything around the fleece be wet with dew.

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And so God did that very thing that night. And so, no matter what

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God had said through his angel or through a voice from the heavens, Gideon struggled to believe that the

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Lord would do according to his word. He had small belief, he lacked faith, he needed signs and wonders in the physical realm to supplement his belief, and that will be a major factor.

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I want you to keep that theme, supplementing faith, supplementing belief with signs and wonders, keep that in your mind, okay?

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That's our introduction. Because if you think about it, we have been a people who declare to the heavens,

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Lord, if you are real, let lightning strike down over there, right?

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We'll say these sort of things. We'll say, God, if you are indeed real, I'll believe in you if you heal my grandmother.

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God, if you are good, you'll do this, you'll do that. We make ourselves judge over God.

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I'll believe in you. I'm sitting in the judgment seat, God's on trial, and I'll tell him, look,

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God, I'll believe in you if you do this. But it's the other way around.

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He is judge, he is in the seat. We often do that. Now God is very good, he's very gracious.

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He is especially gracious to do what he did for Gideon, no doubt, no doubt.

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For him to complete these signs and to emphasize to Gideon that it will happen, that was gracious.

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He didn't have to do it, but he did it. He had already spoken. He didn't need to.

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And he often does that for image bearers, but he also doesn't do it all the time.

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And what we will see is if the Lord says something, he shouldn't have to give a sign.

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Let's take a look at the text at hand now. Go to verses 43 through 45 in John chapter four.

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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.

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So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem, all at the feast, for they themselves were also at the feast.

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So John confirms in verse 43 that Jesus did indeed stay with the

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Samaritans for two days. That was last week at the end of our sermon there. And I believe, as the prologue says, that Jesus is the exegesis of the

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Father. He is the explanation of the Father. He is the ladder to heaven. Jesus told them more about himself,

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I believe, from the scriptures. I think it was an awesome two days. Who knows all that he told the

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Samaritans? They believed his words. That's what it showed, and it really is incredible.

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Divine providence led Jesus to Samaria and to that well, if you remember.

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He was on his way to Galilee, and he didn't go around Samaria. He went through Samaria, and divine providence led him to the well where that woman would come out and he would offer her living water.

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Well, now that divine providence is gonna continue. He's moving on from Samaria.

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He's going to the destination that he said he was going to. He's going to Galilee.

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And if you look in verse 44, for Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

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That is not saying that Jesus said this right now in their travels, okay? John is trying to give, decades later, as he wrote this fourth gospel, he's trying to give the proverbial saying of Jesus.

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This is something Jesus has said multiple times, and John is setting us up for the account that's about to happen.

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For Jesus himself testified that a prophet is not without honor except in his own country.

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This is said, of course, in the Synoptic Gospels. As he goes to Nazareth, he is unwelcome there.

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He has an unwelcoming experience, I should say. Now, before I explain why

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John brought verse 44 up, why did he say this, before I go into that, let's consider some things that are relevant to the story that I think would have happened to Jesus that may even translate to us.

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You see, the people would say things like, is this not the carpenter's son? Is this not the son of Mary?

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Is this not the Jesus whose brothers are James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

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Aren't these, aren't his brothers right over there? Isn't he just carpenter? Where did this man get these things?

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How does he speak like this? Why is this man now, he was raised not too far away in the village next to me, why does he think he can speak with this kind of authority?

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I know who he is, I know who his family is. These are the sort of things they would say, honor in the

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Greek is timay, which means to say there was no honor, no respect, no status.

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Now some rabbinical status, rabbinical honor was given as he did miracles throughout

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Judea, but back at home, it didn't matter what he was doing because they knew who he used to be.

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It didn't matter. The prophet is not without honor except in his hometown.

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We are no prophets. We are witnesses of the prophet, priest and king,

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Jesus Christ. However, what Jesus went through in regard in this way is something that is possible for you and I to endure.

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I really believe that. In fact, I think some of you have even relayed that to me before. I've heard you talk about it.

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Have you ever been in a situation after Christ has saved you and you're with old friends, you're with relatives, and they remember the old you?

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In fact, they make sure to bring it up. They try to make a spectacle or a mockery of your faith and your allegiance to Christ.

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Maybe they'll conjure up old stories about you. Remember when you did this? You were, man, you were, you were a different level.

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Even I wouldn't have done stuff like that. And they'll laugh about it. Man, boy, you were crazy back then.

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And there's some stories that are lighthearted and that's completely fine. But when they bring up these things to try to bring you down and be like, look, you're self -righteous.

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Because that's often what they'll say. When people who are unsaved are next to saved people, it's not typically, people can be self -righteous, but it's not typically because you're self -righteous.

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It's because an unsaved person is next to a saved person. And they're like, you think you're better than me.

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So let me bring you down. Let me remind you of who you are.

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I remember even when the Lord saved me, I was a shift manager at a grocery store.

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And they knew me for a couple years as an unbeliever, as this goofy shift manager, and they'd wanna work on my shift, the young guys, and I would make jokes and crude stuff.

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And then Christ saved me and all of a sudden that stopped. Said, what's happened to you?

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Why are you different? What's going on? And I would tell them about Christ. And they're like, man, you are so nuts now.

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You are insane. They really thought I was crazy. And it really worked out because it became very difficult being around these people.

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And so that my division manager said, look, an opportunity came up where they said,

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Wade, could you go to other different locations in the valley and be kind of a roaming manager?

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Because we're missing managers here, here, and here. And so I had to commute and travel, but I'd work a couple weeks at this location, couple weeks here, and I would be a new person to these people.

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And it was in a way easier because I could then say, yeah, I'm a Christian. I could totally be nuts for Christ.

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And that would just be accepted. That's what they know me as. So in a way, it's easier.

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No reminders of who I used to be. No temptation to be the old me.

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You can get that too. They start joking the way you used to joke and you're like, ah, you know. It's even, another illustration it even reminds me of, it's like Lord of the

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Rings. We're reading it right now as a family, the thick old book with the three fellowship, two towers, return to the king, all that.

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And there's so much more than the movie show. And at the end,

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Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin, they come back to the shire and they're like dressed in armor and tunics with high quality garb and they look very noble and they're coming in on ponies and hobbits really often walked everywhere.

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What do these guys think they are? They're on ponies and they come riding in back to the shire after just having helped save the world, destroy

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Sauron, the evil villain of Middle -earth. And they come riding back in and the other hobbits are like, who do these guys think they are?

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I remember when Frodo was being chased by farmer Maggot's dogs when he was trying to steal mushrooms out of the garden.

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They knew who he was. And so you have these moments where whether you're a believer or what's changed, you come back to where you used to live, where people used to know you and you're different and they treat you in a mocking way, okay?

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We think about the warning from the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 6. It says, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

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Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, excuse me, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

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But then he says, such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the

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Lord Jesus Christ in the spirit of our God. Such were some of you. That is the glorious phrase.

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Such were some of you. And that's how it translates to us as a believer.

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Of course, Jesus was without sin, but we used to be those things and now we're not. That's the test.

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We need to remember that. But now to why. Why would

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John include this proverbial saying, for Jesus himself testified that a prophet is not without honor except in his own country.

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Why would he say this as he heads to the Galilean region to heal the royal official's son?

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Okay, let me go into that. Typically, this word for own country or hometown, patris, that's what it's translated to.

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Hometown, typically, and that is often referred to for Jesus in the

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New Testament as Nazareth. Okay, we know he was born in Bethlehem in the south, just south of Jerusalem, but Jesus lives way up here in the north near the

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Sea of Galilee, and that's where he was raised even though he was born here in that fulfilled prophecy.

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And so that's his old stomping ground was in the Galilee region in Nazareth. That's typically what his hometown is referring to.

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But I believe that John is using this saying in a different way.

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The word Nazareth isn't even brought up in this context. He's got a different application for the word patris, own country, and I think it's referring to Galilee and Judea as a whole.

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It's referring to the Jews, Jewish soil, okay? Jesus was just in Samaritan soil, and now he's entered back into Jewish soil,

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Jewish land. Okay, this is where he's from. He was received well, remember, just before this, he was with the

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Samaritans, they turned to him, that's the context. He was received well in Samaria, but he's not received well on Jewish soil.

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Jesus just saw salvation wash over a village in Samaria, but now he goes back to his own people who often reject him.

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Verse 45 says so, which is actually typically therefore. And so he's drawing a connection, we ought to look back.

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Verse 45 says therefore, and so we look to 44 and see what that demonstrates.

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And it's trying to demonstrate that the Galileans don't welcome him as the Messiah, but as a man of God who did signs and wonders at the feast in Jerusalem, and that's what they're welcoming him as.

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They saw what he did in Jerusalem, and they had shallow belief.

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That's what John is trying to get us into the mindset of. They have a shallow welcome. Because if you remember chapter two, after the prologue, he went to Cana, and that's what he says, in Cana he made the water into wine, and he's in Cana now.

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And in chapter two it says, now when he was in Jerusalem, before he got into Cana, now when he was in Jerusalem at the

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Passover during the feast, many believed in his name, observing 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 did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for he himself knew what was in man.

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If you remember from that John chapter two sermon, it literally means

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Jesus didn't believe they're believing. He didn't entrust themselves to them. He didn't believe they're believing, and it even says here that the

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Galileans were at the feast. They were the ones who were also witnessing all the signs and wonders that Jesus was doing during the feast, and they were part of the group in which he said,

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I don't believe they're believing. He didn't entrust themselves to them. He knew what was in man.

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He knew that they didn't fully believe. And so John is finishing up what is called an inclusio in writing, okay?

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That is to say, he has sought the early ministry accounts, even things that were possibly not mentioned in the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

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John is showing us things that we've never seen before, and now he's wrapping up what's called an inclusio.

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John chapter two started with the wedding at Cana, and now it's going to end in chapter four with this healing of this royal official's son in Cana.

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So you have Cana, Cana, and that was the early ministry of Jesus. That's kind of this literary technique that John is doing, and he's wrapping it up.

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We are to look back and remember the people's mindset. The faith of the Galileans was so dependent on miracles opposed to the faith of the

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Samaritans, which was on the basis of what Christ said. That's what John is doing. They saw signs and wonders at the feast in Jerusalem.

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Then we go, okay, the feast in Jerusalem. Then we go back to chapter two and realize that Jesus said they didn't fully believe in him.

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They believed in him on the basis of signs and wonders, and then we're supposed to then think of the

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Samaritans, which happened right before this, and it says that they believed Jesus based on his word.

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It wasn't because he did anything spectacular in Samaria by the well. He told them,

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I am. She said, the Messiah's gonna come and tell us all things, and he says, I am that Messiah.

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I am, and so they believed based off his word, not these amazing things that he performed in front of them.

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That's the contrast that we're supposed to see. So when it says he came into Galilee and the

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Galileans received him, don't think of that as some sort of hospitable, they are literally welcoming a miracle worker versus the

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Messiah. Miracle worker versus Messiah. That's their reception of him.

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Because if you remember, the prologue says, and his own didn't receive him.

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His own didn't receive him, and that's what we're supposed to think in this moment.

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Because after this chapter in John chapter five, it'll show a rising opposition of the

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Jews in Jerusalem. That'll be chapter five. Then chapter six, the crowds will misunderstand his words and his

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Messiahship, and he says, I am the bread of life. Those who will be saved, those who live to serve me will eat my flesh and drink my blood, and if you remember, those words really repel people, and it says that all of the disciples who had started to follow him left, and all who remained were the apostles.

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So that's chapter six. And so that's the trajectory that we're going here is seeing how these

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Jews continue to reject him, not all of them, but some. And it makes the truth all the more tragic.

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The hated Samaritans turn to the Christ while the covenant members of Israel oppose him.

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Morris says regarding Jesus' welcome in Galilee, quote, it was dependent on the wonder arising from their sight of the signs, not on a realization that Jesus was indeed the

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Christ, the Savior of the world. Their very acceptance of him was in its own way a rejection, end quote.

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And this is the driving force that equally brings people to himself. It also causes people to want him dead and crucified, and ultimately, both are necessary.

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In this earthly ministry, we need people who want Jesus dead. I know that sounds morbid, but we need people who want

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Jesus dead and crucified, but we also see people who turn to Jesus Christ by faith, and they follow him.

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So we need people to want him to die, but we also need people who want to follow him, so then the word continues, and it comes to us here in 2023, right?

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That's what we need. He has followers and rejecters, and they're necessary in his earthly ministry.

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We need people to want Jesus dead so that after he dies, then we believe in him, he rises again, and then we will rise again and live again in the future.

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He is the Savior of the world, John is trying to show us. God so loved the world.

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Those are phrases that have been in John so far. These are things that John is trying to establish in the minds of his readers.

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You see, putting the account of the Samaritans in his gospel not only ministers to Gentiles, but it also seeks to make his own kin jealous, to let the

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Jews see that even Samaritans turn to Jesus Christ. Even they have believed and seen that he is the

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Messiah. In fact, Paul did the same thing. He said in Romans 11, I am speaking to you who are

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Gentiles, and as much then as I'm an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow

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I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.

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And so including this account prior to this is even something that John is showing

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Hellenistic Jewish readers after he's finished this gospel. Look, he's the

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Savior of the world. He's not just the Savior, the Messiah of the Jewish people, he's the

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Savior of all. Turn to him, even these Samaritans who you hate, turn to him.

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But going to the next verses, John says, therefore, again in verse 46, he keeps wanting us to look back.

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It's kind of like saying for this reason, because of this, because of what I just said.

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And as we read about this royal official, we are to think about the Galileans welcoming motivations being saturated in their own self -interest.

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This is, again, a far cry from a hospitable welcome.

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They're glad to have a rising star in their community. Nazareth in some ways in the

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Galilee region has been considered less than in other parts of Israel. And so, ah, they have a prophet of their own, they have a rising star, and they have a man who can do their bidding.

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They have a man who will heal them and bless them. And that's kind of the mindset that we're supposed to be thinking.

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They want to use this man for their own needs, and they needed signs. People of faith take his word, but they want signs.

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Because the fact is, although they saw his signs, they didn't truly see him, the

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Savior. So verses 46 and 47, and therefore, 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.

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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.

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So John wants us to remember, Cana is where Jesus made the water and the wine, there's the inclusio.

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And we ask ourselves, did the servants who saw that Jesus changed the water and the wine, did the servants go on and tell other people?

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Or was it simply because many people from Galilee and in Cana were there at the feast in Jerusalem, and they saw his signs?

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We don't know. It was probably the latter than the former, but both are possible. Either way, it was enough for this royal official to hear about Jesus.

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The royal official in the Greek is basilikos. This is someone directly responsible to a king.

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This is likely a very high up official. Now it doesn't say if he was a

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Jew or a Gentile, we don't know. But because John is seeking to show the shallow believing of the

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Jews in comparison to the believing of the Samaritans, I think that this man is likely a

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Jew. In fact, this was probably a royal official of King Herod.

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Herod Antipas. Remember, there was the Tetrarchs, four Herods, the main

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Herod's sons, and they ruled over different parts of Israel. And Herod Antipas was ruler of the north part of Israel.

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And he ruled from 4 BC to 39

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AD. He would have been there at this time when Jesus was moving around the

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Galilee region. He wasn't technically a king, but even in Mark chapter six, he's referred to as a king.

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And so we see the glorious irony again. Jesus was the true temple the

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Jews should have revered. They shouldn't have revered the physical one. Jesus was the true heavenly bridegroom bringing premium messianic wine.

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It wasn't the man who was getting married in Cana. In fact, that man ran out of wine. We're supposed to see the contrast.

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Jesus was the true teacher of Israel, while Nicodemus wasn't.

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Jesus was the true baptizer, not John the Baptist. Jesus was the ultimate patriarch, not

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Jacob who provided that well, because Jesus provides living water. And He's the

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Savior of the world, not just of the Jews. That's happened so far in John.

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These contrasts of what they think the Messiah should be, or what they worship instead, but He fulfills it.

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But the irony is a royal official comes to Jesus not realizing that Jesus is the true royal official.

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In fact, He's a king. He's the king. And this man comes to Him now.

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This royal official is just like everyone else in the Galilee region. He's heard of what Jesus can do, and he hopes he can help his son.

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But his faith is little. His belief is little. It's hoping to see

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Jesus do something. And that something will benefit him.

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It'll help him. It'll help his son. This royal official has need of desperation mixed with little thought as to who

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Jesus is. And despite his little faith, I think that this account will continue to show his faith grow little by little.

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No matter what your motivations are, if it's just simply to save your son, and you want to heal her, it at least takes some level of faith to come to Jesus and ask

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Him to heal your son. In any case, he hoped Jesus could do it.

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And we see several actions presented in verse 47. The royal official heard that Jesus was in Galilee.

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Someone was speaking. Did you hear that? Prophet of Jesus, He's back in the region. The royal official would have heard about Jesus's ministry.

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He would have heard about His miracles, His works. There's something about Jesus in which

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He is not taking His son down to the temple in Jerusalem so that a priest can touch

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His head and pray over Him. There's something about Jesus, at least, that this man is bringing

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His son to Him. And he doesn't have enough time. And his son could probably be in Galilee and probably not bear the journey down, but he's heard things.

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He's heard good things. He's heard heavenly things. He's trying to decide if he's skeptical, but he's desperate.

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This is the last thing I have. If this Jesus doesn't heal my son, then my son's going to die.

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The next action is that the royal official's little faith made him go to Jesus. It compelled him to depart where he was in Capernaum and find

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Jesus in Cana. This was a walk of faith. His faith was growing with every step.

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I think we're starting to see that. Capernaum to Cana was 37 .4 kilometers or 23 .2

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miles. Over this type of terrain, it would have been a little bit over a 10 -hour walk.

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10 -hour walk, if he did, as a royal official, he probably had a horse maybe. That, even then, with a horse, would have been a four -hour or so gallop up to Cana.

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He was pursuing Jesus. He had no other hope. And it doesn't say that the royal official sent his servants.

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This is his son. This is his boy. He's not giving anything to chance or putting his boy's life in another person's hand.

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He's got to get his boy into the Messiah's hands. He's got to go grab him. He's got to find

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Jesus. And so he's running up to Cana or he's galloping on his horse steed, and he's got to get to Jesus for his son.

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He is a one -track mind. He's got to get to him. He's thinking on the way how he's going to ask him, what's the best way to ask this man to heal my son?

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He's thinking he's never begged before another man before, but this is a time and a reason where he's ready to beg.

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He's ready to beg for his son's life. The next action is that he was imploring

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Jesus to come down and heal his son. Imploring, in the Greek, this is asking of Jesus in the imperfect tense.

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It's an ongoing action. It's the kind of thing a desperate father would do. He hopes Jesus will do these two things, come down to Capernaum and heal his son.

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His son was about to die. And so the royal official demonstrates his faith in Jesus to heal, but he fails to recognize the divinity of Christ.

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He has a faith of temporal desperation, not eternal desperation.

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You say, you're being hard on this man. I would have done the same thing. I know it. I know it.

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I would have done the same thing he's doing, but he doesn't fully get it yet. His son is about to die.

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He should be saying, come down and tell my son you're the Messiah, that in case he does die, he'll go into eternity with the

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Lord God Almighty, but he's not saying that. He's not worried about those sort of things. He doesn't recognize that Jesus can save people from their sins.

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He recognizes right then in that moment that at least this man can heal his body right now.

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Jesus doesn't even need to come down to heal his son. Jesus's power transcends the bounds of nature, for he made all natural things, and we'll see that shortly.

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So go to verse 48. Jesus said to him, unless you people see signs and wonders, you will simply not believe.

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Jesus speaks to the royal official in a way that surprises some of us, right? Well, hopefully it doesn't now that I built that kind of background of Jesus is not being honored here in his

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Jewish country. He's coming to a place where they want signs and wonders, but still

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Jesus really gives him this rebuke. John was setting the stage.

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I read it earlier. These were people who were at the feast. They saw him do signs. They believed in him, but only on the basis of his signs.

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Now, in verse 48 where it says, unless you people, people is added by the

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NASB. People is often probably in your translation, but it actually only says you, but the you is in the third person plural.

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So that is an okay thing to add, unless you people. He's not even just simply talking to the royal official.

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He's lumping him in with the rest of the Jews in the Galileans. Unless you people see signs and wonders, you don't believe.

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You don't believe. This father, despite his good and natural paternal instincts is also guilty of using

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Jesus for his own purposes. It's a belief that comes from wrong motivations.

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It's a faulty belief because Jesus knows their hearts. Jesus knows the heart of man.

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You see, what if Jesus said to this man, sir, it is not God's will for your son to remain, but take heart and believe in me.

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What if Jesus said that to this man? I'm sorry, I could heal your son, but it's not for your son to be healed.

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But have faith, believe in me. I am the Messiah. And the question is, then would that man walk away going, he's not the

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Messiah. He can't even heal my son. Did he come because Jesus was the

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Christ or did he come because he was hoping for his son to get healed? Would he walk away?

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Would it show that his faith is only in Jesus' ability to produce signs and wonders or is it in the one who performs them?

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Is it in the one who chooses sometimes not to perform them? Will you keep the faith then?

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That's even a test for us, right? The people should believe because of the words of the

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Logos, the word made flesh, Jesus Christ. They should believe because Jesus is the exegesis of the father.

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They should believe because the law and prophets testify of him. And we constantly see in the

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Bible that signs aren't enough. You see, Jesus raised

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Lazarus from the dead. We're gonna be seeing this later in John chapter 11.

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Jesus just raised Lazarus from the dead. The man had been rotting as a corpse for several days.

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In fact, they warned him that there will be a smell and Jesus comes to the tomb of Lazarus and he says, come, come forward,

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Lazarus. And Lazarus is alive and he's unbound from his wrappings that were all over his body.

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Jesus raises a man from the dead. That is the ultimate sign. That is the ultimate wonder.

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That is the ultimate miracle. And yet it says this, therefore many of the

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Jews who came to Mary and saw what Jesus had done believed in him. But here it is.

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But some of them did not believe and went to the Pharisees and told them the things which

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Jesus had done. Signs are sometimes a catalyst offering this apologetic evidence based on the word proclaimed about what the

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Messiah will do when he comes. But signs are also a judgment on people who see them and don't believe.

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Jesus says that in his woes. If what I did in Tyre and Sidon was done here, you would have repented long ago sort of thing, right?

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That's even what Abraham says to the rich man in Luke 16. If your relatives didn't believe,

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Abraham speaking to the rich man, if your relatives didn't believe based on the word of the prophets and the law, then they won't believe someone telling them the truth even if he rises from the dead.

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Jesus did. Jesus rose from the dead and people still didn't believe.

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Now, if this man had great faith, he'd be like the centurion in Matthew 8.

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In fact, there are striking similarities between the two stories.

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There's also stark differences. You see the royal official in John 4 and the

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Roman centurion in Matthew 8 were both from Capernaum. They both had someone they loved who needed healing and they both sought

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Jesus to heal that loved one. Very similar. But here's where they go different.

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The centurion had a beloved servant paralyzed and tormented needing healing. Jesus told the centurion, okay,

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I'll come and heal. Come and heal him. Those are the two exact things that the royal official asked

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Jesus, come and heal. But the centurion said to Jesus, Lord, I'm not even worthy for you to come under my roof.

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I'm not worthy for someone like you, someone so holy to come under my roof.

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I'm an unclean man, essentially. You are so holy.

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He had this reverence for him. He understood who Jesus was,

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I think. Jesus was holy as God himself. So although the centurion commanded men at his word, he also recognized the divine authority of Jesus and he believed it.

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He believed it. He said, I have this authority where I command men and I say, go here and they do it.

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And I say, do this and they do that. And then he translates that to Jesus. So I believe if you just say the words, you'll be able to heal my servant.

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He believed it. If you say by your word that my servant is healed,

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I'll know it will be done. All you got to do is say it. And he believed Jesus had that kind of power and he was right.

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It says Jesus marveled. Jesus marveled at the centurion's faith.

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And what does he say? He says, I have not seen such great faith in all of Israel.

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Remember that? Because he said, I'm not worthy for you to come into my house.

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And look, I'm also a man of authority. You have a divine authority. So just say the words and I know you can heal my servant.

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And Jesus says, wow, that is great faith. This is the difference.

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You see the royal official believed that Jesus could heal only if he was present with his son.

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Come, come down to my son and heal him. Do this work. You have to be near my son to touch him.

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But the centurion of Capernaum believed that Jesus was who he was so that he didn't need to be present and near his servant to heal him.

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That's the greater faith. That's a faith in the one doing the miracles, not a faith in the miracles.

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In verse 49, the royal official said to him, sir, come down before my child dies.

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He won't give up, but he still doesn't fully get it.

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Instead of the word kurios, which is Lord, this man uses the lesser form, which is kuri, sir.

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He ought to be concerned if his son goes into eternity apart from faith in Christ.

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Again, I don't mean to pick on him. I'm exegeting this text to you, but I know that I would do the same thing.

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I'd be saying and thinking the same things as this man. This royal official has now been dwindled down to a desperate father.

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He says, my child, here in the Greek. And when that term is used, it's more affectionate.

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It's more loving. This is no longer officially my son is dying. This, the way he says my son or my child here is this desperation.

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I love my boy. I love my child, sir. Please come down and heal him.

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Whatever little faith he had before just in the signs Jesus performed, it's now almost as if he's praying his prayer to Jesus from a father worried for his son to the heavenly father's son.

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Heal my son, heal my child. Come down and heal him. He doesn't get it fully yet, but he will soon.

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And the fact is the rebuke that Jesus gave, he said, unless you see signs and wonders, you won't believe.

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He said that to the man and all the people. It could also even be a challenge. Have faith.

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Have real faith. Don't just have faith in what I can do. In fact, if you look at verse 50, something is changing.

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His belief is growing. Jesus says to him, go, your son lives.

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And here's where we see the believing. It says the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him.

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Start it off. The man believed his word now.

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This is no longer a faith just like the rest of the Galileans who look to only signs.

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Jesus answered and said, your son lives, and he believed his word.

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Jesus gives an imperative, go, travel out to your son, he lives. Jesus performed the healing 23 miles away.

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It was done. Because distance is no concern. He cannot be bound by things that he ordered himself by his word.

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You see, if one creates, he is greater than his creation. He has power over it.

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For if the creation were to overpower the creator, then it would be greater.

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Jesus, however, demonstrates his power effortlessly. He isn't exhausted.

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He doesn't need a power up. He just heals him from that distance.

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It's done. It's just simply done. The boy lives. The phrase, your son lives, although in the present tense conveys a futuristic sense as well.

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He lives and will live. Jesus, the true king, commands this royal official, go.

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He commands him. And he no longer commands him as a royal official.

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And no longer even as a father. It says the man, that is the Anthropos. This man believes he's a believing man now.

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He doesn't believe in a sign because there wasn't even a sign yet for him to behold. He believed in his word.

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He hasn't seen his son healed yet. He hasn't been given notice from his household that his son is healed yet, but he believes exactly what

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Jesus said. And so if you were to keep begging

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Jesus to come down and travel to his son, it would show that he didn't just have little faith.

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It would show that he would probably have no faith, but he doesn't do that. Sir, come down before my child dies.

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Jesus says, go, your son lives. And if he kept going, but no, you've got to go there. How could you do it from here?

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Please heal my son. Don't just tell me he lives. Your son lives. Go to your son.

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But how do I know? How do I know if you healed my son? My son's about to die.

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Why don't you come? Don't you have to anoint him and touch him? My son, my son's about to die. But he doesn't do that.

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He shows that his faith has grown. He believes in Jesus's word. Jesus is the true

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King. This is the role reversal. He's, like I said, he's no longer identified as a royal official.

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Jesus is the King. And he started off. He believed

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Jesus's word, and that's what we all must do. Although we haven't seen or heard

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Jesus in the flesh, us here haven't seen necessarily signs and wonders that he himself performed in the flesh.

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We must believe based off of Jesus's word. And that's the lesson for us.

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You won't always see change. You won't always see things improve in this area or in that place or in this person.

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And you might ask things of Jesus that he doesn't do because he has ordained something else.

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But we must have faith in his word. He has spoken.

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And if you think about it, although we have this spiritual connection to Christ, largely your faith is in what he has spoken.

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This word connects you to him. This word is a connection to Jesus Christ. The words that are bound between these leather sleeves, they are trustworthy, they are true, and they are absolute truth.

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That's why we get baffled at so -called progressive Christians who deny the inerrancy and infallibility of God's word.

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Those doctrines are foundational to the Christian faith. If we can't believe what

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Jesus has spoken, how can we then believe in him? That's why all these religions and all these atheists and even

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LDS who say it's missing many plain and precious parts, those atheists and agnostics who deny the historicity and divinity of this word, it's sinking sand.

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You have to believe these things. If we can't believe what was spoken in here, then we can't believe in Christ because he has spoken.

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Jesus said to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies.

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And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? He asked this of her.

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He said something about himself and we've got to believe what he spoke. He asks this question to us as well.

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He says, I am the resurrection and the life. He who lives and believes in me will live even if he dies.

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Do you believe this? And we believe it. We've got to believe in what he spoke because his words are intertwined with his very nature.

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That's the thing about being the creator and speaking things into existence. His words are so powerful that they come true and they are true and they will happen.

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Jesus says, if you believe in me, you will live. And that's true.

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If you're sitting here today and you've believed on Jesus Christ, you will live forever because he said you will.

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We're to believe it. So let's go to our final verses 51 through 54.

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As he was now going down, his slaves met him saying that his son was living. So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better.

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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

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Jesus said to him, your son lives. And he himself believed and his whole household believed.

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This again is the second sign that Jesus performed when he had come out of Judea and Galilee. So the royal official is on his way home from Cana to Capernaum.

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And while on the way, this servant, this slave comes out to meet him.

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No doubt this man was probably even willing to come all the way to Cana, but he saw his master on the way.

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And he said, your son is living. His son is well. That Greek word for living is the same way that Jesus spoke it down to the tense.

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It is the same way that Jesus said it. His servant says it exactly the same, even though our

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English doesn't say it. The pronouncement of the slave was so much like what

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Jesus said, that he thought to ask about the time his boy was made well.

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Not because he didn't believe, but because he knew what, or I should say, who made him well.

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And it was the seventh hour from sunrise. That would have been likely 1 p .m. Knowing the time at which his son was healed, no doubt strengthened his faith in Christ.

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The servants wouldn't have understood the implications of that when he says, what time was he healed?

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They wouldn't have known in the moment, but the father, the royal official, this man knew he was thinking about it in his mind.

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The truth of Christ and the realization of who he is is racing through his mind now.

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This is the Messiah. This is him. One commentator states, and the details the father heard were now further confirmation.

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I'm sorry, were not further confirmation regarding his son, but further confirmation regarding the unique son of God.

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He wasn't asking what the time was for his son. He was asking what the time was as it further confirmed who

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Jesus was. At Jesus' first miracle in Cana, it says, and his disciples believed in him.

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But now things are growing. The man's household believed along with him.

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And what else could you do but go home to your family? Your son is alive. Everyone's rejoicing.

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And he's like, wait, I know you're rejoicing because it seems like he's been made well of his own accord, but I've got to tell you what

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I just went through. They thought that they were giving him good news as he came back home.

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He was coming home to give them good news. That's the difference. You've got to know why he is healed.

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You got to know why my boy lives. It's because Jesus is the Christ. That was what was going on in his mind.

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And so they believed. He believed and his whole household believed, and they believed based off of the word of God himself, the

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Logos, Jesus Christ. John tells us this is the second sign that Jesus performed in Galilee.

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Water purification pots into Messianic wine. Showing the bridegroom is present with us.

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The Messianic kingdom is here. Now this is another sign of the

01:02:42

Messianic kingdom. How would Jews know they're in the Messianic kingdom? That it's been inaugurated, that Jesus has come?

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How would they know? Because there's also healings. Healings have occurred now.

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Isaiah 35, then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped, and the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.

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In regards to the one coming with the new covenant, Jeremiah 36, behold, I will bring health and healing.

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I will heal my people, and I will reveal to them an abundance of truth. That's Jesus.

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And at the promise of the forerunner, and the Lord coming after him,

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Malachi 4 .2 says, but for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.

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He is here. Our Lord has come. The Messianic age of healing came with him, but it's not done.

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It's gonna be fully consummate at his coming. It'll be as healing for the nations.

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He'll wipe away every tear. All of it will be gone at the coming of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, his second coming, which has not occurred yet. So let's wrap this up, church.

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I want to go over the implications, the applications for us. First, think once again about how a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown.

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As humans, we have this internal capacity to not be able to see beyond ourselves.

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Our wants, our needs, our contexts, our desires, as unbelievers, shape our thinking about God.

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When the unbeliever thinks about God, they think about how God affirms their sin.

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No, my God, my God doesn't care that I'm a man pretending to be a woman.

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My God does this. My God receives me the way I am.

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My God knows how hard it is to obey his commandments, and he lets me go free into the kingdom of heaven.

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That's not exactly how the pardon of Christ works, right? And so we have this mindset of what we think

01:05:21

God should be or who he should be. And so the Galileans and the Jews have this mindset of who he should be.

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He's come here to heal us. He's come to be our miracle worker, but he's way beyond that.

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If Jesus were to appear today in America and he was growing in status, you can be sure that Americans would be like the

01:05:42

Galileans who only saw what they wanted him to be and not who he truly was.

01:05:50

The people aren't just sick and needing healing, they're already dead. They need a resurrection.

01:05:57

They need life. We think Jesus needs to get to know us, but he already knows us fully and intimately.

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We think we know ourselves, but it is only through Christ that we discover who we really are and what we actually need.

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You have an identity crisis. You wanna know who you are? You need to turn to Christ.

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You need to look at his word. Then you'll know who you really are and what you need to become and what he's done for you.

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The appropriate response to Jesus is one that learns to find meaning in life, not merely in what he gives, but also in who he is.

01:06:42

Second thing, Jesus is the God of signs and wonders, but if he should not perform them around you, should you lose your wonder of him?

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He is a God worthy of our worship, whether he causes water to come miraculously out of a rock or water to come out of your faucet.

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He's a God that deserves our worship either way. He's our

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Lord, even when there's no sign, and yet he is our truest and greatest sign.

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Third thing is believe the word before you see the result. That's what we can see here.

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That's what this man did. Believe the word before you see the result.

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Jesus has said he will do something in you. I don't believe it's gonna happen because I'm still going through this.

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Believe it before the result comes. Lastly, this account further confirms the prologue in which

01:07:43

Jesus is the eternal Logos, who is the light and life of men. The reality is the man's son was about to die.

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Something is not right in the world. There is sin and there is death. And Christ's work at this point in the fourth gospel is not over.

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He's got to give this man's son a way to beat not just death temporally, but death eternally.

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Let that be a relief to you here. There were some people, get this, there were some people who were healed by Jesus, but never believed, which means they were temporally healed.

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You, if you've believed in Christ, you are eternally healed.

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You have forever life and may that give us comfort and endurance to keep facing the sufferings, the sicknesses, the ailments and the conflicts of this life because he's given you one after this life that will contain none of those.

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Let's pray. Lord, please bless the message that went out.

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Lord, please help us to believe your word before we see the result.

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Help us to grow in our faith, Lord, before we see you make a change.

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Help us believe what you've said. Help us to believe on the basis of your word.

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Lord, help those in our community to believe based off of the truth of your word and not because of a feeling, not because of something they see, not because their wallet was empty the day before and now it has money in it.

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Let them not believe because of that. Let them believe because you said who you are in this word and your word is eternal and it's definite.

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So God, help us to have faith in that. Strengthen our faith. Help us to be more like the centurion in Matthew 8 who recognized all that it took was what you said.

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And so Lord, please continue to grow us and shape us into the men and women of Christ, the children of God that we're called to be.