Blinded by Expectations
Chasing Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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· 14 viewsThis passage opens with a remark concerning the human condition, a prophet is never honored in his hometown. John points to one obstacle that prohibits our faith, the perception of our mind’s eye. The prophet is not honored in his hometown because everyone already has developed an opinion of them based on their previous encounters. Jesus experienced this in Nazareth as the people made statements like isn’t this Mary’s boy, the carpenter. Even when the testimony speaks of wonder, our hearts defaults to the perceptions that we already established. Unless something miraculous would shake your perception, the truth would not be able to take hold.
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A Lack of Faith
A Lack of Faith
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. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.
John 4:43-
Jesus has just experienced the life changing results of true faith in the lives of the Samaritans at Sychar. A woman who was driven by shame repented and found abundance of life in Christ. Her response to this abundance was to go and stop at nothing to share this new life with her townspeople. A city was transformed by their faith in Jesus.
Now Jesus returns to Galilee and the response of His own people falls so short of true faith. They welcome him based upon His sign and wonders, not His messiahship.
John will challenge the readers understanding of what faith is over the next several chapters as Jesus did with his followers. Life changing faith comes only from true belief in Christ. Not merely a belief in what Jesus can do, but a true belief in who Jesus is.
It is not enough to merely believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven. We must believe why he is the only way to heaven.
A Call to True Faith
A Call to True Faith
Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at 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.
“Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
“Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”
The man took Jesus at his word and departed.
John 4:46-
The man is likely an official in the court of Herod Antipas.
He comes to Jesus out of desperation, the last hope for his son. His heart comes seeking what Jesus may do for him, moved by the reports of the signs and miracles that Jesus had performed.
Jesus challenges the object of the faith of the official and the crowd. The object of their faith was the work of Jesus’ hands and not Jesus himself. They believed that He could do miraculous signs and wonders but failed to believe that He was the Messiah.
Is our faith the same? Do we trust in Jesus’ ability to save our souls or do we trust in His Lordship?
The Reason for True Faith
The Reason for True Faith
John 4:51-
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.” So he and his whole household believed.
This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.
The man leaves believing that Jesus will do what He says, but when the servant comes and tells the man that his son is healed, the man is brought into true faith by his recognition that Jesus fulfilled his promise.
At the very same time Jesus had said go, the boy was healed. Jesus was one to be trusted and if this was true, then would he not be truthful with his other words?
The man moved to true faith in Jesus, not just the signs of his hands but every word of his mouth. This is true faith.