Jesus Heals an Official’s Son | Week 9

My name is Josh. Like most of you know, I lead the College Ministry here along with my wife.

It’s the first time I got to say wife on stage. So wife. But if you’re visiting, we’re glad to have you here. And I just wanted want to be able to catch you up on what we’ve been up to here at the Church throughout the past few weeks. So we’ve been in a sermon series called The Ministry of Jesus.

So we’ve been in this for about two months, and we plan to take our time to get through this. We’ll be in the series for probably about like two years and some change, but walking through every encounter of Jesus, every conversation, every miracle. And last week, we looked at John chapter four and the story of the woman at the well. And so this morning, we’re going to be looking at another story that’s towards the end of John chapter four. So you can go ahead and turn there if you have your Bibles. If you don’t, the Scriptures will be up here, but we’re going to be talking about how Jesus heals the official’s son. So we’ll jump in and read this first passage. It says, after the two days he left for Galilee. Now, Jesus himself had pointed out that a Prophet has no honor in his own country.

When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, and they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there. So this is a map of where Jesus is right now. And so we remember that last week we were talking through this encounter that he had with the Samaritan woman. And so he stays there for about two more days, and he’s interacting with different people in that area. He’s helping them have faith because of his words.

And after two days, he leaves and he heads to Galilee. So he’s gone from Samaria back north to Galilee. And we’ll cover more about what Jesus was saying about how a Prophet doesn’t have any honor in his own home country in coming weeks. But for now, we could look at this as a contrast. It’s a contrast between the Samaritans and it’s a contrast between the Jews.

So Samaritans believing in Jesus and valuing him at his word, and then the Jews, who only believe because they saw him do miracles. The contrast in their faith in Christ. This is also a contrast between people that we read about in the scriptures and every single one of us. So here’s the question. Well, here we go. You can see this.

And then he moves north a and then after north. This is my question. So what does God have to do for you to trust him? In the scriptures, we have examples like Abraham, who God told leave his country and go to a land that God will show him. And he went he had no clue.

He didn’t have pictures of what that land looked like. He didn’t know where he was going. He just went. He went to where God wanted him to be. We also have examples of men like Thomas, who spent consistent time around Jesus.

He was able to witness the Ministry grow. Yet when he heard that Jesus had resurrected, he didn’t believe by just hearing about it. He wanted to see. He wanted to feel the wounds that Jesus had from his crucifixion. But what does it take for you?

Do you need God to do something first before you can trust him? Or are you at a place where, if he said it, you believe it? Back to that passage, Jesus is he’s touching down in Galilee, and this is the second time. So he’s there again. As soon as he arrives, he’s welcomed by people, the people of Galilee.

And the scriptures give a reason as to why they saw him do a miracle last time. So it’s like the miracle guy is back in town. Let’s be nice to him. Let’s go welcome him. Some of you may remember a few weeks ago, the whole water to wine story. That happened here in Galilee.

And now he’s back and his popularity has grown. And there were also a good amount of people who didn’t believe that he was Messiah at the time, but there weren’t too many people that questioned if he could do miracles. So seeing Jesus as just a miracle worker was a common way to view him at this point in his Ministry. Many people who had the chance to interact with him or had a chance to hear stories about Jesus believed that he was a miracle worker. People who attended that wedding, Nicodemus, the woman at the well, people in Samaria, anyone who heard of these encounters believed he was a miracle worker.

And now we’re able to read about this official who traveled miles because of his belief in Jesus and his ability to work miracles. And so with that, all of this sets up the stage for the second miracle of Jesus here in Galilee. So on those lines, I also think it’s cool to see how this fits very well with John’s main reason for even writing this gospel, because it’s a miracle about believing. John, chapter 20 verse 30 to 31 says Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name.

This theme of belief is littered throughout this whole encounter, this whole account, verse 48, verse 50, verse 53. But let’s go ahead and continue to read on. Once more, he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine there. And there was a certain Royal official whose son lay sick in Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son who was close to death. So a brief background on this Royal official. Some scholars think that he was an official of Caesar’s household, and he had some business that he had to take care of in Judea. But I also read that some believe that he may be an officer from Herod anthropist’s household. He may have been Chuza, so Chuza is actually mentioned in Luke Eight, one of Herod stewards.

But either way, he’s connected to men of power. So you could imagine him being in this situation going to whoever he was an official for and asking for help with his son. Then when it seemed like that didn’t work out and there was no other place for him to turn, like many of us, he goes to Jesus. At this point, his rank, his wealth, his position, his influence, they mean nothing because none of those things can save his son from death. He takes about a 16 and a half mile journey from Capernaeum to Cana to meet with Jesus personally.

Now, this is an official, so he probably had servants that were under him that he could have sent, but he wanted to go on this journey personally to go and look for the needs of his son personally. But after hearing Jesus is in Cana that he’s arrived, this Royal official goes to Jesus and begs him. He begs him to go heal his son. Begging seems very uncharacteristic for a man of this position, but we’re also talking about his son being on the very edge of death, and there’s plenty of desperation there. The titles of honor, the accolades bring no security when the threat of pain and sickness and death arrive.

Just as a reminder, as we’ve been talking through the series, as we’ve been walking through it, we haven’t been taking the posture of thinking of ourselves as relating to Jesus here, like we aren’t Jesus in this story at all. And none of these stories that we talk through, but we’ve been aligning ourselves with the people that Jesus is helping, the people that Jesus may be teaching or correcting or healing, whatever that may be. So as we continue to read about this interaction, remember, you aren’t Jesus and neither am I. We’re more like the official. We’re a lot like the Jews in attendance for this as well.

But I want you to see how Jesus responds to the humbled official as he begs on behalf of his son. Jesus allows this man’s words to be a teaching moment for him, the official, for those witnessing the interaction, and for us as well. Verse 48 Unless you people see signs and wonders, Jesus told him, you will never believe. A problem has been brought to Jesus. This man’s son is in the process of death, and Jesus takes the opportunity to bring up something more important a more important issue. You only believe when you see. The you in this passage is actually plural.

It’s not just directed at the official. It’s addressed to the Jews in attendance as well. So you can translate the U to Y’all. So unless Y’all see signs and wonders, Y’all will never believe, you all will never believe. Again, pointing out the contrast and faith between the Samaritans and the Jews.

And so history proves why Jesus saying this at this time is more important than addressing the official’s son, the dying Son immediately. All throughout Israel’s history, they wanted and cried out to God for signs and wonders. And I think Psalm 78 does a great job of giving us a snapshot of some of those cries. Psalm 78 we’ll read to about 17 or twelve.

So the men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle, they did not keep God’s Covenant and refused to live by his law. They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them. He did miracles in the sight of their ancestors in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan. He divided the sea and led them through.

He made the waters stand up like a wall. He guided them with cloud by day and light from the fire all night. He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them water as abundant as the seas. He brought streams out of a Rocky Crag and made water flow down like Rivers. But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the wilderness against the most High.

So we see a few signs that the Israelites were able to see, and also the common theme of forgetting after seeing those signs. The issue is Jesus could do more signs for the Jews, and he does. We’ll see that as we continue to move through the series. He could heal the man’s son, and you know that he does. And we’re going to see that as we move through the sermon.

But doing these miracles and having that be the only thing that people believe in him for is not the reason to do them. Just so after a few years, they can go on and forget like their ancestors did. Remember these things Jesus did were so people believe in him and have life in him, like the passage we read a little earlier in John. But let’s make this a little bit more personal. So what sign today do you want from Jesus?

Maybe you want him to remove your anxiety. Maybe you want him to help you and ensure that you’ll accomplish your dreams. Maybe you thought that this year was going to be your year and it hasn’t been, but you want it to be still. So you want him to do that. So maybe you have some things now that are on your mind.

But can you remember signs in the past that you wanted from Jesus? Do you remember any that he did. Do you remember maybe you prayed for a job? And then you got that call and you’re hired. Do you remember that time that maybe you prayed for a friend to become a Christian and you kept praying and you were involved and you’re like, God, please, and they decided to be a Christian? Is there a situation that you were going through that was like, I don’t know who to go to Besides you similar to this official and then he helps you through that situation? Hopefully you have something in mind. When was the last time you thought of that?

Maybe it’s been a while. Maybe you forgot, or maybe, like, it’s fresh on your mind. And I’m glad that that may be the case, but I know there’s things that I’ve forgotten about. Working on the sermon and as I was thinking through these questions, I remembered a time when I was younger, I was in middle school, maybe six, 7th grade. What a time.

I was 12-13 years old. So my parents had gotten a divorce. So I would go see my dad every other weekend. So it’d be me and my little brother. We’d go see my dad. We’d hang out, we’d do different things. He lived in Orlando. So we’d go, like, downtown or do different things. But this particular weekend, we went to the pool. And so this pool had a slide for the kids. It had two pools. So if you got sick of this one, you go to this one or you hop on the slide, whatever you want to do. But it also had a bar. So while the kids, while my brother, my two friends and I are playing around in the pool, my dad could just hang out, just drink a couple of beers and hang out over there. So we spent some time there.

And as it was time to leave, my two friends come up to me and they’re like, hey, your dad’s drunk. I was like, no, there’s no way, bro. I’ve been around my dad way longer than you. I’ve seen my dad drink Heinekens,

Bud, all these different things and never have I seen a beer affect him. Never. So for you to come up to me and say that he’s drunk out of all places, it’s at the pool. No, that’s not. You’re a liar.

You know what you’re talking about. But a little bit after that conversation, my friends, my brother and I, we hop into the bed of my dad’s pickup truck. So we’re hanging out, we’re ready to drive back. We’re in the neighborhood. We’re driving through the neighborhood.

And the moment that we leave the pool parking lot, I recognize that my dad is drunk. My friends were telling the truth, and I didn’t believe them. So we leave the pool parking lot, we’re in the bed of the truck. So it’s the four of us. It’s my brother and my two friends and my dad is speeding throughout the neighborhood, making aggressive turns.

We passed the house that we lived in. We ended up on, you know, those roundabouts, how they have medians in the middle and so sometimes they have trees. So we ended up on that. But thank God we didn’t hit a tree. So I genuinely thought that the truck would end up flipping because of the aggressive driving, the speeding and all of those things.

And I remember holding my brother in the back of the truck and just fearful, fearful for his life, for my life, my friends. And nothing else came to mind except praying.

It’s awesome. But my brother is probably home in Groveland, Florida, just chilling right now and I’m here, I’m preaching. And so I don’t know about you, but that was a sign for me. That was a sign. And I’m grateful that it didn’t end worse.

But I forgot all about that story until I was working on the sermon. I felt like God saved my life and I was able to forget about that. God has done so many good things around us and we enjoy them and we’re grateful for them for a portion of time, but we don’t progress long term just because of a sign. We much like the Israelites we eventually forget. And that happens when God does signs it’s with progress in mind.

And we’ll see that as we continue throughout reading the story. But I want you to look at how this official responds. The Royal official said, sir, come down before my child dies. My first time reading this, I thought that he was trying to sidestep Jesus, similar to how we spoke about last week with the woman at the well. And so he doesn’t respond with anything that seems to touch on what Jesus had just mentioned.

But then I thought about his circumstance. His boy is home dying. He respectfully asked Jesus to come with him to go and heal his son. But we see here one of Jesus got the moves throughout the scriptures throughout the Gospels. Jesus working on us before working for us.

Jesus working on exposing simple faith to make space for us to grow into a more mature faith. A faith in the words that come from him, not just things we’ve seen or heard him do. So practically, instead of just wanting Jesus to do things for us, we have to focus on putting ourselves in position to have our hearts worked on by Jesus. Spending time, quality time reading our Bibles, praying throughout the day. These are foundational things that put us in position to actually see what God is doing around us as our faith continues to grow. Look at Jesus response.

Go, Jesus replied, your son will live. This is a beautiful example of Jesus embodying Isaiah, chapter 42, verse three. It says A bruised Reed he will not break and a smoldering Wick he will not snuff out. This is a super hard conversation and at a very difficult time.

But it’s not enough to break the official or snuff out his faith. And while navigating the difficulty of having a conversation with a man whose son is currently dying, he also addresses the Jews with this statement. But Jesus also shows compassion. He decides to not say anything more about the issue of believing only because of signs. A conversation addressing an issue to help the faith of this man, the people in attendance for us, but it’s to help us progress in our faith. But five words.

At those five words, we see that progress has been made. The man took Jesus at his word and departed. The man moves from believing Jesus can do miracles and has progressed to trusting Jesus at his Word. He went from belief like the Jews, stemming from the fact that they’ve seen miracles, to the faith comparable to the Samaritans, and believing the words Jesus says before seeing any action. He went home trusting, even though he hadn’t seen anything in relation to his son being healed.

This is after Jesus had been resurrected and appeared before Thomas. Then Jesus told him, Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. This healing of his son has not been seen, and he still believes because Jesus said so. That’s growth, his faith, much like ours, had a starting point, like it had to start somewhere.

For many people, Jesus miracles were that starting point. The official probably heard about the miracles, and that was the start for him. Maybe for you. You grew up here, you grew up going to the Church, and so it started really early, or maybe you had a good conversation about God, or I’m not sure it started somewhere, though, or maybe it hasn’t started, and hopefully it does. But that’s how faith works.

It starts somewhere. And wherever it started and however it started, it’s not where Jesus wants it to stay.

He wants the story of our faith to progress, to move from a faith only because he’s done something and you’ve seen it to a faith in his word, in what he says, and then to also continue to grow from there, to deepen that. Progress in your story of faith, your personal faith is essential. The faith in what he’s done and what he said and in who he is will continue to grow in us. That our continual growth in our faith will allow others to start their faith journey, or it will help others strengthen theirs. Or we can be strengthened by somebody else’s.

Verse 51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him yesterday at one in the afternoon, the fever left him. Then the Father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, Your son will live. Amen. The official heads home after Jesus’s Words. It seems like he took his time getting home as well.

So it’s 16 and a half miles from Galilee. If he left Galilee after this conversation, there was more than enough time to get home in that same evening. So this walk is similar to if you lived in Margate and you walked to the Church this morning like it’s that kind of a distance. So it’s about 6 hours of walking. So if he left at 01:00 P.m.

Then he could have gotten home at seven ish, but he didn’t. He arrives the next day, something that he stayed the night in Cana that he was assured of what Jesus said was going to happen with his son. So he just relaxed there. Others believed he walked home with no sense of hurry. He just walked back home slow and got there the next day.

There’s debate about the time that this actually took place. Some say if it’s by Jewish time, which starts at 06:00 A.m., then this healing did happen at 01:00 P.m. But if it’s according to Roman time, then it happened at twelve and the time doesn’t really matter for us. But this time was important for him so he could be able to connect Jesus words to what he had spoken the day before.

Then the Father realized that this was the exact time Jesus had said to him, Your son will live. So he and his whole household believed. Now it says he and his household believed. And I believe. That’s amazing.

That’s awesome to see. But what does that mean? He believed already. He believed that Jesus was a miracle worker. That’s why he’s there in the first place.

Like he wouldn’t have taken that long journey to be able to get there. He wouldn’t have walked 6 hours to get there if there wasn’t some type of belief. But this is another level of faith. His faith has progressed, it’s grown, it’s evolved. Not just for him, but his whole household. He’s gone from believing Jesus can do works, which is a nice start, but there’s still some improvement that needs to be had to believing Him at his word, which is great, like believing his words is good, but we can move from there.

Demons also believe what Jesus has said, but we still got to keep moving to believing in him and who he is and committing to him. And that belief was something that he also passed on to his family.

The way that five words from Jesus mouth were able to strengthen this official’s faith is in ways as great a spiritual miracle as it is this physical one of his son being healed. These five words not only healed his son, it grew this man’s faith to the point of full belief and even the belief of his household, a belief in his power, a belief in his word and a belief in who he is, the Messiah. Last week we spoke about the woman at the well and her thirst for men to fill a role in her life that only God can fill. Then Jesus showed her that her greatest need was not another husband. Her greatest need was not another man, but it was a savior.

Jesus does the same exact thing here. The greatest need of this family was not that this boy is healed of his sickness or doesn’t die. That wasn’t their greatest need as a family or even for him. The family needed a savior. Our greatest need is not that we be happy.

Our greatest need is not that we get married or that we achieve the goals every single one that we have set for 2022. We need a savior. I’m confident that that’s something majority of us believe. But I have a question. How has the progress of your faith been recently?

Has your faith been growing this year? It’s two months down. Two months of this year. Has it been growing? Is your faith today dependent on God serving you, or is it shaped by a devotion to His Word and who he is?

Is deepening your faith a focus for you or has something else, some other physical thing taking priority instead? Is your faith stagnant? Does it feel the same? Does it feel like it hasn’t really gone anywhere, or is it decreasing? Take time to think through those questions.

Write them down. Share the answer with somebody that’s here someone close to you. Talk through it. But as we wrap up, I want to take time to remind you of the greatest miracle Jesus has done with the hope that so long as we live, we will progress in our faith. The same way Jesus was trying to resurrect something in this official he’s trying to do the same in us. But a lot of us need to see something before we believe.

And the Scriptures over and over again want us to be people who take Jesus. Take God at His Word. What does that mean for some of you? Maybe there’s areas in your life that you just need to obey God. What he says to do with your life.

Stop holding on to things and doing like 75% of what God wants you to do. But try to focus and really do 100%. Aim for it. Ask for accountability. Ask for help.

Try. Some of you need to read your Bibles every day and pray every day. We all do. Maybe you’re a visitor or have been around for a little bit and today is the day that you want to take more serious steps to deepening your faith. I recommend just going to the Discover class. That’s more personal.

You can speak a little bit about where you are, what’s going on, and that will be specific help to you. If you’ve been a disciple for a while and you recognize that you’ve grown stagnant, confess. Talk about those things, talk about it with people, and don’t share in a way that makes you look good, share in a way that humiliates you so you actually get it all out and people can actually help you where you are if you’re like. Hey, I just haven’t had a lot of faith recently. I didn’t read my Bible two days this week.

There’s probably more there. Share that so that the help can actually reach that point. But I implore you to make efforts to progress in your faith. We’re about to take Communion. I wanted to take a look back at John 20 before we close out. Now, Thomas, one of the twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.

So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hands into his side, I will not believe. A week later, his disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here.

See my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. Thomas said to him, My Lord and my God. Then Jesus told him, Because you have seen me, you have believed.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed. Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name. Wherever you are now, faith wise, Jesus’life, his death, his resurrection gives us an opportunity to grow more faithful, to grow and believe that he is the Messiah, that he is the Son of God, and that by believing we would have life in his name.

Let’s go ahead and pray.

Father, thank you so much for giving us chances to believe. Thank you so much for the opportunity to come to you and to know about you and to wrestle with faith. God, you’ve given us time. I pray that we don’t abuse that. God, we see that you’ve worked on a plan well before us, for our ancestors, down to us God throughout the Old Testament, throughout the New.

And to see Jesus, even in this odd scripture, to live a life, to have died, to resurrect and to come back to Thomas, to still try to help him believe correctly. God, that’s the same way that you do with us. God, I’m so grateful that you resurrecting happened a while ago, you still come to us. You still try to help us believe God through your scriptures, through people, through experiences, through all these things.

But, God, I pray that we would believe the way you want us to, that we can trust your word, that we can move from okay God, you gave me that job I’m thankful for that I believe in you a little bit. That we can move from okay these scriptures are nice and they help me and they’re challenging me and I’m working towards that but we keep moving towards a true connection with you. That we keep fighting to keep that connection and not let distractions get in our way. God that we will continue to progress God, I’m grateful. Thank you for this time. Thank you for your son and everything that he did on the cross to give us a chance to even do this.

God we don’t deserve it. We don’t deserve of the opportunity to even have faith in you and you give it to us. God we love you. Thank you again. I pray this in your son’s precious name.

Amen.