Right Belief

Right belief

John 4:43-54

July 23, 2023

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When I was in college I had a summer job that was very hard. It was one of the most physically exhausting experiences of my life (and that is saying a lot considering boot camp was a cakewalk compared to this). I poured concrete for one of my dad's friends, George Stokesberry. When he hired me he told me that my pay would be directly dependent on my attitude and how hard I worked. On my first day, he tested me to my breaking point.

My boss did concrete old school. He used 12-foot-long 2x16 form boards. My job was to move a stack of form boards that were half covered in old concrete (40 of them) from one pile to another (like 50 feet away) in weather like it is today. He never told me why. Matter of fact, to this day, I still don’t know why. But, he told me, “von, move each board to this other stack and make sure that the new pile is stacked tight. I’ll be back later to check your work”. After the 8th board, I learned the cost of heat, weight, and pride. I wanted to show him I could do this and do it fast. By the 8th board though, I was moving at a much different pace than I first started.

The point was this, I learned obedience that day as I have never learned before. You see, George was an old Idaho State Patrol Captain. He was a mountain of a man and I was petrified of him. He could have told me to jump off a cliff for free and I would have obeyed him because I believed he would kill me if I didn’t do it.

Today’s message is about belief, obedience, and what to do with both.

Our message is as good for the unbeliever and the believer alike. If you are breathing, this one is for you. We all suffer from the wrong belief from time to time and it’s my goal today to bring us to the right belief and then challenge us to make HIS word the rock of our belief.

1. Wrong belief is man motivated.

(Vs 47-48) 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”[1]

Desperation is a powerful motivator. Parents, how far would you go to save a dying child? Would you walk over 20 miles in the dust and heat of the day to go find a person who you heard that could do miracles? Would you seek Him out in desperation? Of course, you would! Desperation motivates us to seek out the cure no matter the cost. What is so important to know is that God uses desperation to get us to Him. Just as He used snakes in the OT when the people of Israel complained about the manna, He uses other things to get us to Him. He even uses sickness, death, joy of a child being born etc. All situations can be used.

We know that this was not a short walk. It was a full day journey because of verse 52 where it took him 24 hours to get home and 1 day’s journey was 20-23 miles. But, is the father the hero of this story? Definitely not. He went looking for one thing and left receiving something far more wonderful.

“So Jesus said to him, “unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe”.

The text makes it sound like Jesus is only talking to the father. But in the Greek the word “you” used twice in this verse actually means plural. He was addressing the father AND all of the people with Him. He called out all of them for seeking effects, NOT the effect causer. Christ was addressing all of them and us today.

Unfortunately, we come to Christ seeking the wrong thing. We, in our fallen state never seek HIM because we would rather have the effects of Him. Our desires are self-serving, self-affirming and are always on the lookout for validation of our current position in sin.

Psalm 14:2-3

2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,

to see if there are any who understand,

who seek after God.

3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;

there is none who does good,

not even one. [2]

This text reads exactly what it reads. It can’t be sugar coated. There is only one way to take these words.

We may say that we want HIM, we may even do the deals. “LORD if you…, then I’ll believe in you”. That is not the right way to seek HIM out. That isn’t even seeking HIM. That is seeking the effects of HIM and comes from the position of corruption. God does not do drug deals.

Remember the steak analogy I used last week? Pretend I have an amazing steak on a plate. We have our fork in hand. When we want only the effects of God, we are in essence taking a nibble of the fat and running a way saying we are good to go. That is not what GOD wants for us. HE wants to give us the entire cow. He wants us full IN Him, not the marginal amounts that the effects produce. One only look at the saddest example of this. Judas, the one who betrays our Lord settled with being around Christ for 3 years without ever coming to a knowledge and faith that to save Him.

I wonder, how many here today are settling? Remember the sermon I gave about us all living in God’s common grace? The air that we breath, the sun on our face, the cool of the morning, the taste of food we eat? All of that is the effects of God. But, there are those in this room that have the entire cow. They have placed their entire faith NOT in the effects of Christ, but IN Him completely. Is that you today?

(vs 49) “the official said to him, sir come down before my child dies”

I told you desperation is powerful. This is a desperate cry, just doing what any normal dad would do for the sake of his child. Kids, you will never understand this level of desperation until you get here. But, there will come a time when your infant is so sick, you are willing to do anything.

Derek’s life flight

I was willing to do anything and pay anything. Talk about doing deals with God, I was doing them. I was so scared as the helicopter was landing, I was thinking how am I going to do this?

This is how amazing our LORD is. HE met the father where he was. He did not send him away. He worked in the small amount of understanding on who Jesus was. In the gracious work of the sovereign plan of the God of heaven, Christ met the father in his desperation with grace and truth. Did He have to heal the kid? No, it would not have hindered His ministry in the slightest. Jesus didn’t heal everyone. He did do signs and wonders, but He definitely did not HAVE to heal this kid.

He had enough understanding to seek Christ out as a miracle worker. As limited as it was, He at least recognized Jesus as able but I want to compare something.

(vs 49) “come down”

Verses:

Roman official in Matthew 8:5-10

5 When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.[3]

This roman centurion has a few lessons for us:

1. He recognized who Christ is: LORD

2. He understood authority and respected it: I am not worthy, I am a man under authority and making commands.

3. He knew who he was talking to: Just say the words.

The Lord Jesus recognized the gift of faith given to the Roman. Did you hear that order? Just to review, God does that act of regeneration. I am walking in my sin, God spins me towards Him. This is where we exercise the will in obedience to God’s work.

Before we throw the father under the spiritual bus too hard, many of us today would never even bend a knee and ask. But, we can see there is a big difference between these two accounts. One was a man centered belief and one was something different. The Roman demonstrated what a right belief looks like.

2. Right belief is God motivated.

(vs 50) “50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.[4]”

This one verse is HUGE! Please remember the sermons I gave about how John writes. He uses the events of Jesus’s life to get us to see who He was and is. He is more into us catching the big picture and uses the events to get us there. Please see this. John is saying that Jesus commanded, directed and said “Go”. It was the same weight of word that was used while the creator of the universe was created. I know, I just gave you whip lash. Look back at John 1: 1

“in the beginning was the WORD”.

The “man believed the WORD that Jesus spoke to him and went…”: that word WORD there is LOGOS. John is saying the LOGOS spoke and instructed him to go, your son is healed. This was like the divine imperative. “GO, your son is healed.” John is directing us back to the importance of who was instructing the father. It was the same person and work from the beginning of the world. The LOGOS spoke, it happened. What was the effect after one meeting with the LOGOS?

Doubt left the picture. Doubt had no space in the heart and mind of the father. He did not sit there and argue with Jesus. He didn’t grab his robe and beg “no come with me”. He immediately showed signs of regeneration. Doubt left as a RESULT of the encounter with the savior of the world. Fear had no place in this story after the encounter with Jesus because of who the father talked with. We see this all through the synoptic gospels (mat, mark, luke) and especially in John that one encounter, one conversation or in the case of the Roman, hearing what Jesus said causes a God motivated belief. That is the power of the LOGOS. That is the power of saving faith.

This faith, this belief has immediate effects on the heart and minds of those in desperation. Desperation makes us face our sin, face our rebellion and come to our LORD for salvation. If we were smart, we would thank the Lord for the times in our lives that cause us to come to the foot of the cross, as difficult and horrible as they are, the result is Him glorified and our obedience.

3. Our obedience is the result of right belief.

Please hear that statement one more time. Obedience is the RESULT of right belief. Order is very important here! If I change that around, we become a works-based religion like every other demonic cult in the world. We are 1000000% NOT a works based religion! We obey BECAUSE of right belief not the other way around. I love what Dr. Voddie Bauchum says, when we are saved (the work of the LORD), He changes our want to. He makes it so we want to obey out of love for He who saved us.

Okay, now that I got that disclaimer out of the way, lets look at the effects of an interaction with the LOGOS / savior of the world.

(vs 50) “…The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way”

I looked up the word “believe” up in the Greek. It means exactly that! He believed, took at face value and then “put his faith in” Jesus. The belief is actually defined by the fathers action. He went. Notice he did not pressure Jesus to come with him anymore. He went. This is the action of a changing belief from what was, to a result of a true encounter with Christ. He believed and obeyed our Lord. There is direct application here today for us believers.

How many of us actually obey? I for one am in constant fight with my will and taste for disobedience. Kids, do you mind your parents perfectly? Adults, if you look across your life, would you say that you obey our Lord perfectly? No, none of us do. But the difference between believers and non, do you want to? Do you have a desire to “go” like the father did? Do you want to obey and pray for obedience?

I need to drill down on this a bit. If you have no desire to obey. If you have no care and justify your sin as normal behavior. I am talking about lust, lying, fighting with your brothers and sisters, manipulation of the people around you and the list goes on forever. If you have no real desire to obey, I would point you back to your belief. I would challenge you to go back to square one. Have you met and truly know the Lord? I am actually calling your belief out. If you truly believe, you are going to desire to obey. I did not say you're perfect! I said you have a desire to obey.

Getting back to the father, he went. The belief in the Lord caused his obedience and the result was powerful and inspirational! Much like the woman at the well, the effects reached beyond one person. The effects rippled through out a family and a generation.

4. Make His Word the authority of your life.

I want to change my approach here. In your sermon guide down at the bottom there are some questions. This is a private discussion I want to have with each of you. These are questions I want you to truly reflect on. Please do this. There are only three questions for three lines. If you want to come back to them later, you can copy them on your guide for later they are on the screen. But, answer these now:

1. Have you responded to the spoken Word of God?

2. Does God’s Word hold complete authority to direct your life?

3. Does God have the right to impose HIS authority in your life?

The father responded to the spoken Word. The father submitted to His authority and went. Now, how did you do? Do you believe the WORD like that? Do we take parts of God’s Word and manipulate it to our opinion or do we submit to who He is? If we have a low view of His WORD, we have a low view of who He is. The power of the WORD spoken is the power to salvation.

Finally, if #1 is a yes and your belief that Jesus is the way the truth and the light, and no man comes to the Father except through Him, AND you believe that God’s Word has complete authority in your life, that means that God has the right to impose His will on your life. Now I know that is hard for us Americans. We do not bend our knee and recognize authority well. But, we MUST understand this kind of authority:

2 Chronicles 20:6

6 …“O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you[5]”

Anything less than that may mean that you need to go back to #3 and re-look at your answer. Do you recognize God as having that level of authority in your life? Do you recognize that like it or not, the outcome of your life is in the palm of His mighty hand. In love, He has an amazing plan of salvation for those who are in Christ.

God placed Him in a position where we only need to raise our eyes and see our salvation is in Christ.

2 cor 5:21

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we may become the righteousness of God in Him.”

To look to Him for salvation is the right belief. When we have right belief, God gives us the ability to obey and submit to the Authority of God the most high.

Getting back to the father, he walks a day’s journey home (51-52)

51 As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.[6]

We see an awesome result play out in this event in the text. Look at what was the result of the father’s right belief. “And he himself believed, and all his household”. His family and servants recognize that Jesus was exactly who He said He was and become believers. I would argue it was good that the kid was healed, but what was the greatest good? The father’s household was eternally saved. They came to a saving faith as a result of the desperation in the beginning.

CONCLUSION:

Desperation causes us great pain and fear. But, God redeems it. He uses these times to back us into a corner of our sin and rebellion. He uses them to get us to look up. I used this analogy in John 2 or three, in our sin, we have our backs against the wall. Our salvation is found in a God centered and Biblical belief of Christ Jesus. Not one we fabricate. He is saying, look to Christ Jesus. When this happens, He changes our desires and points us to His authority and Word. There we find freedom from our desperation. Freedom is found in Him and Him alone.