According to the Scriptures

Guest (Male): Welcome again to According to the Scriptures, online at AccordingToTheScriptures.com, and now heard on OnePlace.com as well. Today, we're going to return to Pastor Damian Kyle's series on the seven miracles of Jesus. And we're introduced to a man of great wealth and power, but he was in a desperate situation out of options. You see, his son was very sick, so he seeks out Jesus and comes to him for help. Let's lean in and listen to what Damian has to say from John chapter 4.

Damian Kyle: This morning, we continue our series on Sunday morning, a short series, relatively speaking, in looking at the seven "I Am" statements of Jesus and the seven miracles of Jesus that constitute the foundational core of the gospel according to John. Everything is built around them in this gospel. And this morning, we'll continue our series by looking at the second of the seven miracles, having already examined the "I Am" statements previously.

The second of the miracles that's recorded here is Jesus's healing of the nobleman's son. Realize that by the time Jesus accomplished this healing in his public ministry, as he accomplishes it in the son of the nobleman, he had already healed many other people. His miracle of turning the water into wine in Cana, that constituted his first miracle, period. But now this second miracle, as it's recorded in John, many other miracles have occurred between the two of them as they're recorded here.

The Apostle John tells us that the selection of these seven "I Am" statements and the seven miracles by the Holy Spirit is intended to accomplish a purpose within our lives. It's not a random collection of miracles and "I Am" statements that are put down on the printed page, but they're intended to cause everyone who reads them and everything else in the Gospel of John, that it would cause us to put our faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and to be born again.

John states that as his aim at the end of the book, the chapter next to the end in John chapter 20, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. All of the miracles that Jesus accomplished. And so this morning, if you haven't trusted in Jesus for that forgiveness, then our study of this miracle this morning is intended to accomplish exactly that by God in your life.

What that means for the rest of us who are already Christians, you say, well, that miracle's already happened in my life. What is anything to speak to me related to that? Yes, it's a part of our equipping. Once we become born again, once the purpose of John's gospel has been accomplished in our lives, then now as we look at these miracles and these "I Am" statements, we are learning them for others.

We are learning the truth and the implications of these miracles for other people that we will come across, whose lives we will come across with in the course of our lifetimes, whether in our homes or whether at school or whether witnessing at the mall or whether it work or wherever it might be, that what happens here on this page to this nobleman is something that is happening to people continually, that creates a curiosity in their lives or creates questions in their lives and provides us with answers to those questions as we endeavor to help guide them to salvation in Christ. And so this morning, we listen not only for ourselves, but to be equipped to help others come to know Christ as well.

Jesus at this time is in the first year of his three-and-a-half-year public ministry. His spiritual influence and reputation is growing very, very rapidly in the land of Israel. We're told that as a result of his recent turning of the water into wine in Cana, his recent visit to Jerusalem attending the Jewish Feast of Passover, that he had cleansed the temple of those who had turned it into a house of merchandise and a den of thieves. We're told that he also has done many, many miracles up to this point in his ministry and he did many of those miracles in Jerusalem at that same time.

And then as he's making his way from the south, which is Jerusalem, then to the north to Cana where he is headed, he goes through the region of Samaria. And as he's making his way through the area of Samaria, he engages in a simple conversation with a woman by a well in the city of Sychar. And this conversation then translates not only into her salvation, but virtually the entire city coming to a faith in him. And now he's made his way back to Galilee again, and specifically to the city of Cana.

And when he returns, he returns to what is almost a hero's welcome among the citizens in the northern part of Israel. Many of the people from Galilee had traveled down into Jerusalem to keep the Feast of the Passover. And as they came down into that, the city of Jerusalem attended it, they'd seen and the miracles that Jesus had done, they had heard about him. He is the talk of Jerusalem at this point and he is also now the talk of the population up in the Galilee, the northern area, the more rural area of Israel.

Now the Jewish religious leaders down concentrated in the city of Jerusalem, for the most part they looked down on the people in the Galilee region. To them, Judea and Jerusalem were the religious center of the nation, and spiritually speaking, that the Galilee and the Galileans who lived up in there, that they were really just hair on a biscuit. You could live without them just fine.

And so here Jesus, raised in Galilee, he had gone down there, he had bested the very corrupt religious establishment, and he was a local boy who had done very, very well for himself and the people of Galilee by and large were very proud of him. But presently, news of him as a result of all of this, news of him and his fame moved. Not only was he well-known as he had been among the poor, among the common person, the powerless, but now news of him also enters into the halls of wealth and of power, which brings us now to this certain nobleman who is described in verse 46.

For the most part, we have a record of a very straightforward miracle here, but there is very rich in the lessons that it teaches. So we're introduced there in verse 46 to a certain nobleman. He lives in the city of Capernaum, which sat on the Sea of Galilee, about 20 plus miles away from the city of Cana in which Jesus is presently. He was certainly a Jew as we know from verse 48, and almost certainly he was an official in King Herod's court. His position was a privileged one. He had a position of wealth, he had a position of power, he had a position of influence.

But he's also a person who is in the middle of a massive personal crisis. His son is at that moment sick to the point of death. He's dying by the hour and humanly speaking, there's no hope for him at all. And so he turns to Jesus for help. He makes the 20-mile plus journey to Cana, whereupon he proceeds to implore Jesus to come to Capernaum in order to heal his son. Clearly, he has heard about Jesus's ability to heal. His desperation for this healing related to his son is encapsulated in a single word here, and it is in the word "implore." And the word "implore" there means to request urgently, to beg.

So picture the scene in your mind as the Holy Spirit paints it and as the Holy Spirit intends us to picture it within our minds. You have this man imploring Jesus, begging Jesus to come and to heal his son. So you ask yourself today, this morning, have you ever watched a grown man beg in the course of your life? Beg another man for something. It's a rare thing. It's not a common thing in life. And so when you see it happen, as it happens on this scene, it's notable. It just stops and arrests your attention here.

And it had to have been a very powerful scene. Did he fall to his knees? Was he weeping? I don't know, I don't doubt it, but I don't know. But what I do know is he is the picture of desperation. And in pleading here for his son, he throws off all decorum. He throws off all sense of dignity attached that was common within the culture, not only for a nobleman but for any man within the culture. And the scene here is one of just raw, pure, desperate emotion.

But it's not merely a grown man who is begging here in this scene, but it's a nobleman. And in this we learn a powerful lesson in life and it's a sermon all its own. And here was a man who possessed wealth and position and power. His life was one of privilege. He would never for the rest of his life, by virtue of his position, ever have to worry about food or shelter or clothing or healthcare. His wealth, his power, his position insulated him in life and insulated him in life in a way that very few people in human history have ever experienced.

But no matter how much money or position or power or privilege or personal intelligence or physical strength or determination and so forth that one possesses in life, sooner or later, life in this fallen world, it rises up and it outstrips all of our titles and it outstrips all of our resources that we possess to throw at the need that comes to our lives. And here we are confronted at this moment in time, as this man was, were confronted with our frailty and with our need for God.

And how often we are confronted in this way, as is the case here with this nobleman, in the realm of health, in the realm of sickness, in the realm of a dire diagnosis, or in the realm of death. And when sickness or death comes near in our own lives or the lives of someone we know and we love, and that and nothing less than that is what it took for this man to seek out Jesus and to come for him for help.

And people turn to Jesus and they come to him by way of a lot of different paths in life and this is one of them. Doubtless possessing wealth and power, he had already pursued every medical solution that could be purchased by money to be brought to bear upon his son's physical illness that was killing him, and all of it was powerless in the face of this sickness. And so he came to learn that there are certain things in life that none of us can escape. Not even if we possess all the money, all the power, all of the titles, all of the education, all of the intelligence that a person might have in the world.

And again, this man probably would have never sought out Jesus ever in his life apart from this crisis that occurred within his life. The fact of the matter is that there's a whole world of people who would never turn to God apart from such a crisis. They are capable of living the entirety of their three-score and ten without a single thought to God, without a single thought of the implication of the creation all around them as a testimony to God as the creator and as the designer of all of that creation.

They possess no sense of guilt concerning their sin, no sense of a need for God's forgiveness. They don't have a philosophical bone in their body. They can live their entire life while ignoring the questions in life that are intended to bring us to God, questions like what is the meaning and the purpose of life? And they live their lives in what seems to be in ignorant bliss. And they never sense their need for God until some great crisis occurs in their lives.

And then, like this nobleman, it causes them to stop and think seriously for the first time in their lives. I have heard of Jesus. I know he has helped many people in my circumstance. I have tried everything else in life without any help, so now I will turn to him. And this nobleman, as well as anyone else who has turned to Jesus under this kind of circumstance, are to be commended. As the old saying goes, better late than never.

Jesus responded to the nobleman's plea in verse 50 by declaring and promising, "Go your way, your son lives." And Jesus didn't need to be physically present in order to heal the son. This was apparently the understanding of the nobleman, that Jesus would need to be physically present to heal his son. Jesus is going to correct that. And based upon Jesus's instruction and his promise, "Go your way, your son lives," the nobleman responded then, verse 50, by leaving Cana and making his way home to Capernaum.

And as he's making his way home on that 20-mile journey from Cana to Capernaum, his servants meet him. Apparently at the moment of the healing of his son, they are not going to wait for him to return from Cana to report the healing to him. They begin to make their way and somewhere between the two cities they encounter one another and they bring the wonderful news that his son has been healed, he's recovered.

The father then asked them the exact time that it had occurred, and when told the hour, realized it was the very hour that Jesus had told him, "Your son lives." And as a result of the miracle we're told in verse 53, both he and his entire household, his wife, his children, all of his servants, all of them believed in Jesus and they put their faith in him as Messiah for salvation.

Now we have to be careful here lest anyone come away from this miracle concluding that if we come to Jesus in the greatness of our need, that he will always respond by giving us the miracle or the solution that we have asked for in order to then accomplish our salvation, or to think that miracles constitute the surest foundation for our faith in Jesus for salvation. Must never leave the passage without examining his rebuke of this man's so-called faith, such as it was in verse 48. Once again, if you look at verse 48, the rebuke, and it's startling right in the middle of the scene. You say, what in the world? Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe."

So what Jesus did for this man, it was pure grace to make the point, a grace that we should not demand. And this is the point. A grace is being imparted here that we should not demand or expect concerning our own lives. Grace that came with Jesus's rebuke. In verse 48, Jesus points us to a faith in him which is far stronger than a faith based upon miracles. We're all for miracles. We all like miracles. God likes miracles. But they're an insufficient foundation for our faith in Christ or our faith in God.

So Jesus is clearly displeased here. So yes, he graciously heals the boy, but he cannot and he does not hide his displeasure concerning aspects of how both this man and the Jews in general. He's not just addressing the man. He says, "You people." He's talking about the Jewish people. How this man and the Jewish people by and large approached him and viewed him. He's not troubled that they did approach him, he is troubled at how they approached him in requiring a miracle from him in order to produce their faith in him as Messiah.

Guest (Male): We'll stop right here for just a moment or two. Pastor Damian Kyle will be right back with more on According to the Scriptures. We're in a series on the seven miracles of Jesus, and today we've examined the second miracle, that of Jesus healing the nobleman's son. Give us a call to order today's message on CD at (209) 545-5530. That's (209) 545-5530. For instant access, you can go to AccordingToTheScriptures.com or OnePlace.com. Again, that's AccordingToTheScriptures.com, and look for us wherever you get your podcasts as well.

If the Lord is leading you to support According to the Scriptures, there's a convenient place to make a secure donation. It's online at AccordingToTheScriptures.com. It's a highlight of our day when we hear from our listeners as well. Even just a quick hello telling us the station you're listening to, that brings a smile our way, doesn't it? That's ATTS@CCModesto.com. Now, let's turn back to John chapter 4 and hear a bit more about why Jesus was displeased with the Jewish people and how they viewed him.

Damian Kyle: You notice in verse 48 that when Jesus addresses the man, he addresses this larger crowd, the Jewish crowd. And Jesus is rebuking, what he's rebuking is really encapsulated in two words in the verse, and you notice the two words. It's the word "see," do you see it there, and "believe" in the verse. What the Jews wanted and what this man wanted when he came to Jesus here for this healing of his son, he wanted and they wanted by and large a faith based upon seeing.

But that's no faith at all. As Paul wrote in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 7, "For we walk by faith, not by sight." And so they wanted a faith in him that was and is based upon this unending stream of miracles from him in which he is forced to prove himself to them over and over and over again. And to which, no matter how many miracles he did for them, they did not allow the implications of the miracles to cause them to recognize him as unique in human history, as their promised Messiah, and to trust in him as their Messiah. So they were content to pigeonhole him as merely a miracle worker. And clearly, Jesus was already in the first year of his ministry, he is already tired of this.

Guest (Male): We'll pick up from this point next time on According to the Scriptures with Pastor Damian Kyle. Thanks again for listening today. This program is listener-supported and brought to you by Calvary Chapel Modesto. (Outro music fades).