Believing Is Seeing
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Sorrow Is Inevitable In This Life
Sorrow Is Inevitable In This Life
46 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. 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.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 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. 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.” 53 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. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.
jn 4.46-
Sorrow Is Inevitable In This Life
Sorrow Is Inevitable In This Life
We know that from our own experience
We know that from our own experience
It doesn’t matter who you are, sooner or later sorrow, pain, even tragedy will come to you.
Rich or poor
Man or woman
Old or young
Regardless of race or any other categorization
Sorrow will become a part of your personal experience.
And there is nothing you can do about it.
We know that from history
We know that from history
One of the oldest writings in any language contains an expression of this truth that has endured through the centuries.
It is in the Book of Job.
Job 5.
6 For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground, 7 but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.
Sparks (Heb) means ‘sons of flame’ giving the verse the thought that we are born to endure the fires of this life and eventually perish in the burning.
We know from the experience of birth and growth
We know from the experience of birth and growth
You have to sympathize with babies (and mothers too of course) at birth.
For nine months the baby grows in a comfortable, warm, secure place.
Then out of the blue that idyllic experience is changed to one of chaos and upheaval.
Pushed and pulled.
Twisted around and confused.
No wonder the poor little thing’s first independent act is to cry, probably to scream, but it hasn’t yet mastered how to step up their game.
But once things settle down a bit, life is not so bad.
Mom, grandma, and others feed, cuddle, change, rock, sing and make over the little one…and that goes on for some time.
But then as the child grows and the years go by, one-by-one, all those little comforts and props of life and knocked away.
Feed themselves
Dress themselves
Off to school
Earn a living
And as you go along new experiences creep in
Plans fail
Relationship disappoint
Sickness and pain
Eventually death comes to friends or family
Ultimately death comes to each of us and we have to face what lies beyond.
If you came in here this morning cheerful and in good spirits I hope the message so far has been a great help to you.
Obviously my intent is not to spread gloom and knock us all down a step, there is plenty of sorrow in the world without me adding to it or highlighting it for you.
The lesson in our passage challenges us however to think about how you and I will react to such events when they do come to us.
What will we do?
Will they beat us down?
Will they defeat us?
Will we triumph over them?
Might we even claim complete victory in them?
The story of the rich nobleman whose son was dying and his encounter with Jesus helps answer those questions.
Jesus Returns to Cana Once More
Jesus Returns to Cana Once More
In Joy and Sorrow
The basis for arriving at such solutions comes from a story in the life of Jesus Christ. It is the story of a rich nobleman whose son was dying and who, out of his desperation, came to Jesus about it.
By the end of the story we find that not only had the son been cured but also in a far more wonderful way the rich man and his entire family had found a genuine faith in Christ.
Bible Passage
Bible Passage
46 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. 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.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 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. 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.” 53 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. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.
The Setting
The Setting
The story begins by telling us that “once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine” ().
It ends with the remark: “This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee” (v. 54).
Why do we have this emphasis upon the place where Jesus performed the miracle?
Why is this called the second miracle, when Jesus had done obviously many other miraculous things previously (cf. ; )?
Why, in fact, is the former miracle of changing water into wine at Cana mentioned?
Quite clearly, this is John’s way of telling us that we are to put the two miracles—that of changing water into wine and that of healing the nobleman’s son—side by side.
In other words, we are to see them in relationship to each other and compare them.
What does the comparison show?
In the first place it shows a number of similarities.
Both miracles contain an initial rebuke to the one who requested it.
In the first case it was to Mary, Jesus’ mother (2:4). In the second it was to the nobleman (4:48).
Third, in each case Jesus performs the miracle at a distance, doing nothing but speaking a word (2:7, 8; 4:50).
Fourth, the servants possess unique knowledge of what happened (2:9; 4:51).
Finally, each account concludes with a statement that certain persons who knew of the miracle believed.
In the earlier story we are told that “his disciples put their faith in him” (2:11), while in the second narrative we are told that the father “and all his household believed” (4:53).
In the earlier story we are told that “his disciples put their faith in him” (2:11), while in the second narrative we are told that the father “and all his household believed” (4:53).
These points reinforce the need of comparing the two stories. Yet the significant point of the comparison is not in the similarities but in their one great difference.
What is the difference?
Certainly that in the first the scene is one of joy, festivity, and happiness. The stage is a wedding.
In the second the scene is fraught with sickness, desperation, anxiety, and the dreadful shadow of death.
One is a picture of joy, the other of sorrow. In comparing the two we are clearly to see that life is as filled with the one as the other and that Jesus, the One who is the answer to all human need, is needed in both circumstances.
One writer has noted: “Jesus is more than equal to either occasion. He has a place in all circumstances. If we invite him to our times of innocent happiness, he will increase our joy. If we call on him in our times of sorrow, anxiety, or bereavement, he can bring consolation, comfort, and a joy that is not of this world.”
In pointing to this truth John is further documenting his claim that Jesus is indeed “the Savior of the world”; for Jesus is the Savior of:
all men,
at all times, and
in all circumstances.
Growth of Faith
The next fact we are told is that the man who came to Jesus at Cana was a nobleman.
This is not the same word that is used in chapter 3 where Nicodemus is described as being a Pharisee, “a ruler of the Jews.”
The word that is used of Nicodemus is one that denotes preeminence of authority, however derived.
In this case, the word is basilikos, which is related to the word for king and therefore denotes royalty.
The word could even mean that the man was a petty king, but in this context it probably means that he was one of the royal officials at the court of Herod.
Moreover, the man had some means, for he had servants. Here was a nobleman, rich, no doubt with great influence.
Moreover, the man had some means, for he had servants.
Here was a nobleman, rich, no doubt with great influence.
Yet neither his rank nor riches were able to exempt him from the common sorrows of mankind.
Remember, as you think about those in positions of importance or power, that there is just as much sickness among them.
And there is just as much of a need for Jesus Christ.
The wonderful thing, of course, is that this man sensed his need and its solution.
When Jesus had performed his first miracle by changing water into wine, the miracle was at first known only to the disciples and to the servants who bore the wine to the master of ceremonies.
Still, people being what they are, the news must have spread and have created a stir in Galilee.
In time, some of the Galileans got to Jerusalem and learned of miracles that Jesus had been doing there.
They told about these when they returned.
It is part of the same picture that news of what Jesus was doing must have reached even Herod’s court,
for the nobleman had heard of Jesus and immediately remembered what he had heard when faced with the fact of his son’s illness.
News came to the nobleman that Jesus was back in Galilee at Cana where the first miracle had been performed.
Leaving home he made the four-hour trip (about twenty-five miles) from Capernaum, where he lived, to Cana.
There he begged Jesus to accompany him back to Capernaum and heal his son.
There are two ways of looking at the man’s faith at this point.
The first way is to be surprised that he was exercising faith at all.
Here was a man who was high in the court, where he doubtless exercised great authority, traveling twenty-five miles to request a miracle from a carpenter.
It is true that desperation has driven many men and women to unusual actions, and that therefore we must not find this overly significant.
Nevertheless, the man’s faith is surprising. That is one way of looking at it.
The other way of looking at the man’s faith, however, is to look at it in the way in which Jesus looked at it and to realize that although it was real faith it was nevertheless quite weak.
The man apparently believed that Jesus was able to heal his son.
But he limited Jesus to the place—he thought it was necessary that Jesus should come down to Capernaum—and to a mode of operation.
Presumably the nobleman thought that Jesus would have to touch his son to heal him, just as Jairus thought that Jesus would have to touch his daughter to heal her () and the woman with an issue of blood thought it would be necessary for her to touch the hem of Christ’s garment ().
Presumably the nobleman thought that Jesus would have to touch his son to heal him,
just as Jairus thought that Jesus would have to touch his daughter to heal her ()
and the woman with an issue of blood thought it would be necessary for her to touch the hem of Christ’s garment ().
It therefore became Jesus’ purpose to teach the nobleman and to help his faith to grow.
At first Jesus delivered a rebuke. He said, “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you will never believe” ().
That was the equivalent of calling him a curiosity seeker and was perhaps directed as much toward the crowd that had gathered as to the nobleman.
It was a test of the man’s faith or sincerity. How did he react?
Fortunately, the nobleman proved himself to be truly noble, for he was not offended, nor did he seek to justify himself either before Jesus or the others.
He simply stood his ground, restating his need and humbling himself to receive his answer in whatever way Jesus chose to give it to him.
He simply stood his ground, restating his need and humbling himself to receive his answer in whatever way Jesus chose to give it to him.
Here then is the first answer to the way in which we can find triumph or victory in sorrow.
It is to trust Jesus enough to allow him to operate in whatever way he chooses.
Believing is Seeing
Believing is Seeing
But there is also a second lesson to be learned, and it was this lesson that Jesus next began to teach him.
Jesus taught that one must believe first, then he will see the results.
Jesus taught that one must believe first, then he will see the results.
Jesus had said, “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you will never believe.” This statement was a true description of the thinking of vast numbers of men and women.
The world even has it in a proverb, which says, “Seeing is believing.”
The teaching of Jesus was that in spiritual things the order is reversed and that believing is seeing, for it is only as one believes in Jesus that he sees spiritual things happening.
Therefore, Jesus told the boy’s father, “You may go. Your son will live” (v. 50).
The nobleman was called upon to believe without sight. It was hard, but that is precisely what he did.
How might we have responded?
Questioned?
Begged?
Got angry?
Or just gave up?
The story goes on to say, “The man took Jesus at his word and departed.”
Needless to say, if it had been a mere man speaking, the belief of the nobleman would have been absurd.
No one believes without sight.
Yet in spiritual matters it is entirely logical to do so—because we are dealing not with a man but with God.
Yet in spiritual matters it is entirely logical to do so—because we are dealing not with a man but with God.
Jesus is God. So, to believe him is the most logical thing in the universe.
Receptionist at LCC…
Moreover, to believe in Jesus is also the most effective way to set one’s mind at rest, even when faced with sorrow.
Moreover, to believe in Jesus is also the most effective way to set one’s mind at rest, even when faced with sorrow.
For we are told that having believed Jesus the nobleman simply continued on his way.
The word used, plus the tense employed (imperfect), suggests that the nobleman believed Jesus so implicitly that he simply picked up his work where he had left it and went on about his business.
At any rate, it is obvious that he did not rush home; for although the conversation took place about one o’clock in the afternoon and the journey was only four hours, the nobleman did not get back until the next day.
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.”
jn 4.51-52
Do you see the change in the man’s emotional state in just a few minutes?
At first, desperation…my son is dying.
Jesus assures him the boy will live, and he goes on his way.
He doesn’t rush home in fear that the boy will have died.
He believes
His faith is so strong that he goes on about his business and delays heading for home till the next day.
When he did return it was to learn that his son had been healed instantly the day before at the very hour in which Jesus had spoken to him.
What a splendid story this is! And it is all the more splendid in that the man came to such strong faith from such a weak beginning.
It is hard to read this story without thinking of that other similar story of the centurion who came to Christ requesting him to heal his sick servant.
There are some noted similarities, so much so that some scholars have imagined these to be two versions of the same incident.
Yet they are not the same, and the greatest of all differences is to be found in the attitudes of the two men involved.
The centurion had the greatest faith.
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.
He said to Jesus, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed” ().
Jesus praised his faith, saying,
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.
mt 8.10“I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith” (v. 10).
“I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith” (v. 10).
Still the centurion had this faith from the beginning, while the nobleman who sought out Jesus in Cana came to the same level of faith in a very short time through Jesus’ teaching.
Truths for Everyone
Truths for Everyone
The applications of this story to our own experiences are obvious.
I am sure that you have already seen some of them.
First, if Jesus acted as he did with this man and if his actions actually had the effect on him that the Bible tells us they did, then surely Jesus is the answer to our own anxieties also. (repeat)
The man came, talked to Jesus, and then went on his way without any tangible evidence that his request had been granted.
Why?
Because in meeting Jesus and in talking with him, his anxiety evaporated.
It can be the same for you. You may be weighed down under great burdens. You may be crying inside.
Just come to Jesus.
Tell him about it.
He will be delighted to ease your burdens and to take the weight of them all upon himself.
lk
22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. 32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
The second application is that the experience I have described may be true even though our actually seeing the results is postponed.
add scriptures…
The second application is that the experience I have described may be true even though our actually seeing the results is postponed.
They may even be postponed until after this life.
We witness the death of a parent, friend, or child.
We experience sorrow or sickness ourselves.
We come to Jesus and find him saying, “I know what I am doing. I am working it all out.”
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
(ESV)
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
There will always be circumstances in which we will not see that this is true.
Nevertheless, we are to go on about our business.
We may have to pass through the night into the bright day of the next world before we see how our prayers are answered.
Still we are to believe and know that Jesus has heard and that he has answered.
Finally, there is fact that these truths are for everyone.
That is the burden of this first great section of John’s Gospel.
What has John done?
He has shown Jesus at work in the three major sections of his world—Judea, Samaria, and Galilee.
He has shown him with
the rich and the poor,
with the educated and the uneducated,
with Jews and Samaritans,
with religious leaders and those who show no religious orientation at all.
He has shown him as the
“light of the world,” “
the lamb that takes away the sin of the world,”
“the Savior of the world.”
In other words, he has shown us that the gospel is for everyone. Thus, the gospel is for you also, whoever you may be.
Jesus is speaking to you when he says,
18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
isa
(ESV)
18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
He speaks to you when he says,
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
mt 6.25-34
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
PRAYER
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.