John 4:43-54 - The Second Sign of the Christ

Pray

Father, thank you for the opportunity to learn more about you in your Word.

Thank you for revealing yourself to us in these pages and in our hearts.

I pray that you would use me now to change us all into the likeness of your son.

Speak to our hearts and draw us closer to you as we learn more and more about who you are and what you have done.

Father, give me clarity in my words, and give us all clarity in our understanding of the truths you have revealed to us in your Word.

We ask all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Intro

Well, not many passages of Scripture tell us why we should pay attention to them.

Most of them tell us super important things.

Things about God, about us, and about how God is reconciling us to himself through his Son and Spirit.

But the reason why we should pay attention is mostly just assumed.

So, our passage today, John 4:43-54, is kind of unique because Jesus tells us very plainly why we should pay attention to this story.

He says, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”

This is the state we are all in whether we like it or not.

We can’t believe in Jesus unless we have some proof that backs up his authority or the truth of what he says.

And Jesus gave us that proof back at his first sign, turning water to wine at the wedding in Cana…

And he gives us further proof here in his second sign, healing an official’s son.

So, pay attention to what Jesus says and does here in this passage so that we can believe and have life in his name.

We are going to walk through the story together seeing how it all leads to the glorious truth that Jesus is the Christ, and how we can have life by believing in him.

This story, like many others, has three parts to it, the setting, the conflict, and the resolution.

So, let’s look at the setting first in verses 43-45 where Jesus has a welcoming return to Galilee.

John 4:43–45 ESV

After the two days he departed for Galilee. (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.

So, first we see…

A Welcoming Return (43-45)

To understand this setting a little better, let me give you a brief recap of what we’ve seen so far in the gospel of John.

In chapter 1 John beautifully asserted Jesus’ deity, eternality, and incarnation,

then he told us about John the Baptist who testified to Jesus being the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,

and we saw four different circumstances of Jesus’ disciples believing and following him.

In chapter 2 Jesus proved his identity as the Christ to his disciples by turning water to wine at a wedding in Cana,

then Jesus and his disciples made their way to Jerusalem for the Passover where he cleared out the court of the Gentiles and did many signs among the people there.

In chapter 3 Jesus spoke with a Pharisee named Nicodemus and told him about new life in the New Covenant,

then Jesus began a baptism ministry with his disciples that started drawing some attention from the religious leaders.

So, earlier in chapter 4 Jesus left his baptism ministry in Judea to come home to Galilee by way of Samaria where he has a divine appointment with a Samaritan woman which resulted in the whole town believing in him.

We pick up in verses 43 of chapter 4 where we find out that he spent two days with the Samaritans,

and now he decides that it’s time to head home.

Having reaped all the spiritual harvest in Sychar, he moves to his next divine appointment back in Galilee.

Now, in verse 44, John gives us a side comment about Jesus’ return to Galilee.

It’s kind of jarring how verse 44 breaks the flow of the narrative,

but John wants us to understand something important about what is happening here.

He says that Jesus had testified that a prophet has no honor in his hometown.

Luke records a similar statement of Jesus in Luke 4:24.

Jesus had gone to the synagogue in Nazareth and read from the scroll of Isaiah, then said “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Let’s pick up in verse 22…

Luke 4:22–24 “And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘ “Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ” And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.”

This is what John is talking about when he says that Jesus had testified that a prophet is without honor in his hometown.

The people in that synagogue got very upset because Jesus refused to do in Nazareth what he had done in Capernaum.

But Luke hadn’t written anything about what Jesus did in Capernaum up to this point.

So, there’s a disconnect.

Simply reading through the gospel of Luke, we wouldn’t know what Jesus did at Capernaum.

What did Jesus do in Capernaum, Luke?

Well, Luke’s gospel had already been written when John wrote his, and John adds later on in our passage what Luke left out…

Specifically, what happened in Capernaum.

And John tips us off that this is what he is referencing with his side comment in verse 44.

Alright, back to our story in John 4

Jesus comes to Galilee, and the people welcome him with open arms because he’s kind of a celebrity now.

The people of Galilee had either personally seen or heard about the signs he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover feast.

Remember, John didn’t tell us what those signs were.

But we can assume that they were healing related since he had cleared out the court of the Gentiles where the sick and crippled would have come to worship.

So, news of Jesus’ miraculous healing ministry had spread throughout his home country of Galilee.

But remember that Jesus did not entrust himself to those people at the Passover feast.

Back in John 2:23-25, Jesus did many signs and many people believed in his name, but they believed wrongly that he was merely a prophet,

or as Nicodemus said in John 3:2, that he was “a teacher come from God.”

So, these Galileans who were welcoming Jesus didn’t really understand who Jesus was.

They were welcoming him because he was sensational, entertaining, or they thought he would free them from their problems.

This was the setting that Jesus returned to in Galilee.

A shallow welcome, but a welcome nonetheless.

Next, we’re going to see how this welcoming return to Galilee brought about a conflict in verses 46-50 as one man seeks out Jesus with a desperate request for his son to be healed.

John 4:46–50 ESV

So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 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. So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.

So, Jesus had a welcoming return to Galilee,

and now he is met with a conflict…

A Desperate Request (46-50)

John mentions that Jesus came again to Cana in Galilee where he had made the water wine.

He wants us to remember that story from John 2:1-11 because there are some striking similarities between that miracle and this one.

I will point out these similarities as we come to them.

So, there was an official, or nobleman, from Capernaum.

He was a Gentile, and probably a member of the court of Herod Antipas who ruled over the region of Galilee at that time.

This official was a powerful and wealthy member of society,

but all that power and wealth could not cure his son who was sick with a fever.

He tried everything to cure his son, but this fever persisted and slowly brought his little boy to the brink of death.

Naturally, he heard about Jesus’ miracles since Jesus was the talk of the town.

And he’d tried everything else with no success.

So, in desperation he decides to go to this miracle-worker and plead for him to save his son from death.

This official goes and asks Jesus to help with his dire situation.

At the wedding feast back in chapter 2, Jesus was also asked to help with a dire situation.

Remember, they had run out of wine, which would have had severe legal consequences.

Well, this official asks Jesus to come down and heal his son, but Jesus responds to this request very curiously.

He says to this official, “Unless you all see signs and wonders you all will not believe.”

He answers this singular official with a statement seemingly addressing a group of people.

Now, he does this to make a statement about all people by using this official as an example of the way people are.

It kind of seems like Jesus might refuse to help…

After all, it’s better to believe in Jesus without needing signs to prove it.

So, maybe Jesus is fed up with doing these signs since most people are treating them like parlor tricks instead of the way they were intended, as proof of his identity as the Christ.

At the wedding feast in chapter 2, Jesus also showed some initial hesitancy to helping that dire situation.

Remember, he told his mother that it was not his time yet.

But the official persists just like Jesus’ mother persisted at the wedding.

This proud nobleman humbles himself calling Jesus by an authoritative honorific.

In the ESV the official calls Jesus “Sir.”

In the Greek, this is the word Κύριε (kOO-ree-eh), most commonly translated as Lord.

Used by this Gentile official, it is a title affirming the higher status and authority of the one to whom he is speaking.

Imagine this proud nobleman calling a lowly carpenter, Lord.

And not in a sarcastic or patronizing way.

He understands that he is at the mercy of Jesus,

and he’s humbled himself so that by any means he could save his son from death.

Notice, that this official doesn’t simply request for Jesus to heal his son.

His request is specific… that Jesus come down to be physically present with his son in order to heal him.

This was probably how Jesus was healing people in Jerusalem at the Passover, being physically present, and touching them.

So, the official asks Jesus to do the same for his son.

But this is a limited understanding of Jesus’ power to heal.

He thinks that Jesus’ power is limited to physical proximity.

And he thinks that it’s limited to healing the sick and not raising the dead.

He says, “Come down before my child dies.”

He thinks that Jesus is merely a limited conduit for divine power.

He doesn’t understand yet that Jesus is the source of all divine power.

And then Jesus says one simple statement.

He says, “Go; your son will live.”

And the official amazingly believes Jesus’ simple statement.

The only thing to prove that Jesus’ statement was true was the rumors this official heard from the people who went to the Passover in Jerusalem…

but he believes anyway.

He believes that Jesus is a prophet, a teacher come from God, like Nicodemus believed.

So, when this “prophet” says that his son will live, he takes him at his word.

He thinks that his boy’s fever has subsided naturally, or as a result of one of the many cures he has pursued,

and this prophet has simply given him the news that his son will live.

You see, Jesus didn’t do anything that would constitute a sign.

He didn’t perform any visual miracle that people could see and gawk at.

He simply said, “Go; your son will live.”

Jesus did a miracle that defied the natural order that this sickness would have taken, and he did it seemingly without doing anything.

At the wedding feast, Jesus also did a miracle that defied the natural order turning water to wine.

And he also did it seemingly without doing anything.

Remember, he just told the servants to fill the jars with water and take some to the master of the feast.

So, this welcoming return to Galilee led to an official’s desperate request for Jesus to heal his dying son down in Capernaum.

Now we will see the conclusion of the story in verses 51-54, as we see a miraculous recovery.

John 4:51–54 ESV

As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. 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.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

So, Jesus had a welcoming return to Galilee,

and received a desperate request from an official from Capernaum to heal his dying son.

And now we see the conclusion of the story…

A Miraculous Recovery (51-54)

This man, this official, believed Jesus’ statement that his son would live.

So, he goes back home.

He’s on his way when he looks up and sees his slaves coming up the road…

The very slaves that were supposed to be caring for his dying son.

They left to find their master because they knew how much time, effort, and money he had expended to see his son healed.

And they couldn’t wait to tell him the good news when he got home.

So, they left to go find him in Cana where he had gone to see about a last-ditch effort cure from a Jewish miracle-worker.

But they found him on his way home.

As these slaves approach, the man’s stomach starts doing somersaults as he realizes what their presence on the road could mean.

Now it comes to it… did Jesus tell the truth, did his son recover…

or has his son died?

He believed what Jesus said, so he chooses to be optimistic.

He meets up with the slaves, and their report brings tears of joy to his eyes.

His son was saved from death!

In the Greek the slaves’ report uses the same phrase that Jesus had used.

Woodenly translated, Jesus had said, “your son he lives,” and the slaves reported “that his son he lives.”

But this report doesn’t give any details, it just gives the most important bit of information for this worried father.

His son lives!

Because he believed the “prophet’s” words that his son would live, he expected to come home to find his boy slowly recovering from his fever.

So, he asks for the details about his son’s recovery.

Specifically, he wants to know when he started to get better, so he could know about how much longer until his son was fully recovered.

But the slaves’ explanation shocked him.

He expected his son to be slowly recovering, but they said that the fever left him.

It didn’t simply break or subside… it left him… abruptly.

And the other shocking thing about their explanation was that the very hour, the very moment that the fever left his boy was the exact moment that Jesus said, “your son lives.”

Now he knows that Jesus isn’t just a prophet.

Jesus didn’t just tell him what would happen, he told him what he had done…

Jesus proved that he is God by exercising his power over sickness and death.

He’s not just a conduit for God’s power, and he’s not just a prophet who knows what will happen.

He’s God, all-powerful and sovereign over everything including the sickness of a little boy in a town some 20 miles away.

So, this official, this father rejoices that his son has been saved from death, and he truly believes in Jesus as the Christ.

Not only that, but his whole household believes as well.

This official from Capernaum was one of God’s children, and Jesus knew that he needed this miracle in order to believe.

He said as much back in verse 48.

Unless he sees this sign, his son’s miraculous recovery at Jesus’ word, he will not believe.

But he did see that sign, and he did believe.

Just like that official, unless we see proof that Jesus is the Christ we also will not believe.

But we have seen proof in his Word, and proved by the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

So, the result of Jesus’ miracle of healing this official’s son was true belief throughout that entire household.

And the result of his first miracle at the wedding feast back in chapter 2 was his disciples’ true belief in his identity as the Christ.

Remember that was the point of his miracle turning the water to wine… that his disciples would see and truly believe.

And John makes sure that we remember the connection between this sign and the one he did at the wedding.

He says in verse 54 that this was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

Did he do more than just these two signs?

Absolutely!

He did a whole bunch at the temple at Passover…

but these two were so alike in their confirmation of Jesus’ deity and in their circumstances and outcome, that John makes sure we understand their significance.

Unless we see proof that Jesus is the Christ we will not believe.

And Jesus wants us to believe, so he did these signs and had John include them in his gospel account so that we will believe and have life in his name.

Conclusion

Let this proof of Jesus’ identity as the Christ strengthen your faith and cause you to rejoice in his sovereignty over all circumstances.

And when I say all circumstances, I really mean ALL circumstances.

It’s easy to rejoice when life is going smoothly, and the difficulties are manageable.

But what about the times when those difficulties are NOT manageable, like when your son is dying from an incurable fever?

What about when you experience financial hardship…

or when your children walk away from the faith…

or when you experience a difficult marriage or divorce?

What about when you experience failing health or failing memory…

or watching helplessly as a loved one diminishes with age or dies without Christ?

Or what about when you are beyond exhausted because your baby is keeping you up all night?

or you can’t sleep because you are faced with the wretchedness of sin in this world?

These all have the very real potential to cause us to despair and wonder if God has somehow forgotten us, or that he is punishing us for some sin or another.

If you have put your faith in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, then God will never forget you because you are his precious child, and God will never punish you for your sin because he punished his Son in your place on the cross.

Don’t despair when life brings tragedies and difficulties; have faith that God is doing a work in the midst of your tragedy or difficulty.

Jesus used the near-death experience of this official’s little boy to bring salvation to his whole household.

Jesus uses many different difficulties and tragedies to bring salvation to all kinds of people.

Whether miracles occur or not, God works all things for the salvation of his children.

That’s what Paul says in Romans 8:28–30 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

And Jesus worked this miracle for this official’s family to prove that he is the Christ and bring salvation to that household.

And he brings salvation to countless other households through the record of this account in Scripture.

Because the good news is that salvation is for all kinds of people.

It’s not just for the Jews.

Jesus brought salvation to the Samaritans earlier in John 4, and he brought salvation to a Gentile official’s household here.

Salvation from sin and death is for everyone.

And God can grow your faith from simply believing something about Jesus, to believing in him for eternal life.

This official believed what Jesus had said, but he didn’t quite believe in Jesus until he saw proof that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is God.

Maybe you’re sitting here wondering whether or not to believe what Jesus has said in his Word.

Maybe you’re wondering if this whole Christianity thing is true.

Maybe you’re not quite sure whether Jesus really is God, or that he can save you from sin and death.

If that’s you, then I beg you to believe it.

Jesus has given you proof of his identity.

He is the Christ, God in the flesh, the promised one who died in your place so that you could have eternal life through faith in him.

Come to him in faith.

He can save you from sin and death if you will put your faith in him and submit to him as the rightful ruler of everything including the ruler of your life.

Jesus has proved, yet again, that he is the Christ so that we will believe and have eternal life in him.

Pray

Father, thank you for showing us the truth of your Word.

Thank you for showing us that Jesus is your Son, the promised Christ who died on the cross on our behalf.

We know that you are sovereign over everything, that nothing happens outside of your will.

As we read about Jesus healing this man’s son, I couldn’t help but think about the different ways in my own life that I need you and your sovereign hand to guide me, to prove over and over that you love me, and that whatever happens is always your plan A and always good.

Father, there are so many people here in our church that are hurting, worried, grieving, or in distress of some kind because we live in a fallen world full of sin and sadness.

I pray that you would bring comfort to all of our hearts that these hard things we are going through are not in vain.

Show us your glory in the midst of our pain and give us hope as we look forward to the day when Jesus comes back to make all things new.

We thank you and praise you in Jesus’ name. Amen