Faith

Read John 4:43-54

Key Points

1. The nobleman’s faith dawns when he witnessed something he could not explain. (46)

-To be called a nobleman meant he was someone with some real clout. Based on time and place most likely connected to Herod Antipas.

-John reminds us that this is where the first miracle happened, water into wine.

-I don’t think it’s too much to assume that this nobleman had heard about perhaps even witnessed this miracle.

-We know that he is at his wits end, his son is dying and no one has been able to help.

-Is there any hope for him and his son?

Illustration:

You’re my only hope.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away

It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet. Pursued by the Empire’s sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy….

Unfortunately her star ship is overcome by the evil sith lord Darth Vader but not before she is able to jettison an escape pod. On that pod is an R2 unit with a video message “Help me Obi Wan Kanobi, you’re my only hope.”

or

Is there any hope?

In 1927 a submarine collided with a Coast Guard destroyer off the coast of Cape Cod. The collision tore a gaping hole in the hull, flooding the submarine. The initial accident killed most of the 40-man crew, but six men in the torpedo room were sealed off by watertight doors. They were safe, but nobody knew for how long.

The Navy scrambled to deploy rescue vessels to save as many men as possible before it was too late. Divers’ dove into the depths of the icy Atlantic. As if the situation was not already bad enough, a storm suddenly moved into the area.

Despite seemingly impossible odds, rescue crews continued with their efforts. As divers got closer to the submarine, they heard the survivors tapping from the inside in Morse Code: “Is there any hope?”

2. Faith began to make a path in the midst of his desperation. (47)

-Desperate this father begs for his son to be healed.

-Notice that this father does not trust this plea to anyone, he leaves his son side and goes to Jesus himself. .

-Someone who was probably used to getting anything he wanted humbles himself and comes to Jesus.

Matthew 23:12 NIV

For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

James 4:6 NIV

But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

-So in order for anyone to clear a path for faith, they must first learn to swallow their pride.

There is no spirit in man more opposed to the Spirit of God than the spirit of pride.

John Blanchard

3. Jesus checks the father’s (and the crowd’s) faith to see if it is genuine. (48)

2 Corinthians 5:7 NIV

For we live by faith, not by sight.

-Why would Jesus do this, why is authentic faith so important?

Hebrews 11:6 NIV

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

-Today I hear the same question, reworded, “If God wants me to believe then why doesn’t he give me any signs and wonders?”

-At some point the man takes Jesus at his word. He realizes that even his infant faith has to be enough.

-How much faith did the father have? Enough

-In Marks gospel Jesus heals another boy, the father has faith but some doubt.

Mark 9:24 NIV

Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

-This faith is well placed, it’s placed in Jesus.

Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible.

-David Lloyd George

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4. Though his faith is still in its infancy, Jesus honors the father’s request to heal his son. (49-50)

-Did the father expect that Jesus had to be present to heal him?

-Did the father expect that if his son passed that there was nothing more to be done?

-What little faith he may have had was well placed—in Jesus.

SIDEBAR

-Could it be that in this interaction with this desperate father that Jesus gives his infant faith an opportunity to mature?

-The man says “Come,” Jesus says “Go” and he does. It’s not the interaction the father probably desired.

Illustration

2 Kings 5 Naaman and Elisha

-The “going” is really putting some work behind our faith. At some point there is an action associated to the faith that we profess

-Many times is the gospels do we here Jesus say “your faith has made you well” or something close to that.

-His brother James sums it up best by saying...

James 2:26 NIV

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

5. The father’s faith is authenticated by the testimony of his servant. (51-53a)

-Not much to say here except that that there is physical evidence and eyewitness account to the boys healing.

6. The father’s faith advances outward into the family. (53b)

-But in cultures not oriented to western individualism, strategic persons in a family or clan have a great deal of influence in the acceptance of religious commitments. Gerald L. Borchert, John 1–11, vol. 25A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 221–222.

-However according to a 2014 article in the Huffington Post

82 percent of children raised by parents who talked about faith at home, attached great importance to their beliefs and were active in their congregations were themselves religiously active as young adults, according to data from the latest wave of the National Study of Youth and Religion.

Application/Implications

1. It is impossible to function in the Kingdom of God, on this side of eternity, without faith.

2. Our faith should grow.

-But faith must be nurtured. A plant won’t grow without soil, water and sunlight

-Will your faith be tested? Only if your breathing.