Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

We come now to .

In this second miracle or sign Jesus performs, we see the essence of true faith.

True faith is taking God at his word.

1. I’ve been reading a book about anti-gravity.

I just can’t put it down.

2. When you get a bladder infection, urine trouble.

2. A man who stole a calendar got 12 months.

3. When chemists die, they barium.

4. I stayed up all night to see where the sun went, and then it dawned on me.

5.

I changed my wireless headphones’ name to Titanic.

It’s syncing now.

6. England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool.

6.

I got some batteries that were given out free of charge.

7. I know a guy who’s addicted to drinking brake fluid, but he says he can stop any time.

These verses concern the second sign or miracle that John’s gospel records for us.

The first was the turning of the water into wine at the wedding in Cana.

Jesus returns to this area and is met there by a royal official, most likely an official of the court of Herod.

He therefore would have been a man of great influence and wealth.

Yet this man has a great and sorrowful problem, his son is ill and about to die.

I suppose one of the first things we should notice from this text by way of introduction is that problems and sorrow come to all, regardless of race, social or economic status.

As the book of Job relates, “Man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.”

() This man’s money or position could not heal his son.

8.

A dentist and a manicurist got married but they fought tooth and nail.

9.

A bicycle can’t stand alone because it’s just two tired.

10.

Police were summoned to a daycare center where a 3 year old was resisting a rest.

We’ve all heard the saying that “seeing is believing”.

In this passage and as well as throughout the bible we discover that a dependance on the miraculous is not faith.

That faith as the writer of Hebrews states, it “is the evidence of things not seen.

Faith is believing and then seeing.

These verses concern the second sign or miracle that John’s gospel records for us.

The first was the turning of the water into wine at the wedding in Cana.

Jesus returns to this area and is met there by a royal official, most likely an official of the court of Herod.

He therefore would have been a man of great influence and wealth.

Yet this man has a great and sorrowful problem, his son is ill and about to die.

I suppose one of the first things we should notice from this text by way of introduction is that problems and sorrow come to all, regardless of race, social or economic status.

As the book of Job relates, “Man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.”

() This man’s money or position could not heal his son.

As it has been said, “Money can buy you a fancy bed, but it can’t buy sleep.

Money can buy or build a big and fancy house, but it cannot buy a home.

Money can buy you acquaintances, but it cannot buy a true friend.

Money can buy education, but it cannot buy wisdom.

Money can buy you a church building even, but it cannot buy you into heaven.

And money cannot ultimately buy life and health.

This wealthy man had come to a place of desperation and had no recourse.

So it is with many today.

They live hopeless lives of desperation because their hope is in the things they own, the people they know or the money they have.

Yet when sickness or death calls, none of these things can buy eternal life in heaven or peace in the heart.

No doubt this man had heard of Jesus miracle in Cana and was also aware of Jesus’ arrival back in the region.

He rushes himself in desperation to meet Jesus and pleads for a miracle.

The use of the language here in the Greek concerning pleading carries the idea of repeated begging.

He kept it up.

The words that come from Jesus here penetrate and probe to the core of men’s hearts.

I. Superficial and Shallow Faith (v.48)

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

Superficial and shallow faith is dependent upon the senses.

What one can touch, taste, handle.

This type of faith is very emotion based, constantly seeking a new feeling in order to sustain it.

Much like a drug addict that is constantly looking for the next high..shallow faith tends to seek the “next miracle” or the “next spine-tingling moment” in order to continue on.

The Crowds were only Seeking a Magic Trick from Jesus

Without question in the time Jesus walked this earth, there were a great deal of people who followed him only because of his miracles.

They treated Jesus like a circus that rolled into town, looking for the newest magic trick or performance.

When we come to John chapter 6:66, we discover that many would stop following Jesus due to his teaching.

What was true of that day is also true today.

The weakness of superficial faith is that it only seeks a sign.

As a result, it misses the true identity of Jesus.

This official was guilty of this at first as well.

Sensationalism is confusing many today.

Jesus Desires Faith In Him - Not in Miracles or Signs

Now I believe that Jesus can perform miracles, he did in his time on earth and people believed.

I also believe that emotions are a part of the Christian experience, from joy to celebration to indeed spine tingling moments.

Yet we do not subject our faith to these tangible things.

Faith is both objective and subjective.

It is emotional but also practical.

In my time in the ministry I have witnessed this short-lived superficial faith…much like the seed that fell on the shallow ground and did not take root…these individuals fall away when the road gets difficult.

True faith is persevering faith.

The question is what do we do when what we think of as “sensational” is not taking place.

, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.”

People today are no different than they were in the time this official came pleading to Jesus.

The crows clamor after miracles or signs as validation for God’s existence.

They want dramatic visions or dreams, spine-tingling experiences and physical miracles of some kind.

This kind of faith is not biblical faith and is not saving faith.

You can believe in a God of miracles because of something you may have experienced and yet still be lost in your sins because you have missed the greatest miracle of all…the miracle of the new birth by faith in Jesus Christ, not in his miracles, but in his person and finished work to rescue and save from the penalty of sin.

II.

Desperate and Growing Faith (v.49)

The official’s response to Jesus’ words is one of desperation and humility.

His heart is being moved in the right direction.

He doesn’t use his authority and position to make demands of Jesus - he is humble.

He understands that Jesus is his only hope of healing for his son.

A Cry For Mercy

With the limited understanding he had of Jesus, he still cried out to him for mercy.

John Bunyan, “I was driven to such straits that I must of necessity go to Jesus; and if he had met me with a drawn sword in his hand, I would sooner have thrown myself upon the edge of his sword than have gone away from him; for I knew him to be my last hope.”

III.

A Test of Genuine Faith (v.50-54)

“The man believed what Jesus said to him and departed.”

This man had moved from a shallow faith to a dependent and confident faith.

He believed the word of Jesus without seeing the miracle actually take place.

How often do we balk when we cannot see the answer?

This man had such confidence in the words of Jesus that he did not rush home (some 20 miles away) he waited until the next day and his servants informed him while he was on his way home.

Interesting that in both the miracle of turning the water into wine and here the servants were the first to know.