Believe in the Word of Christ

Open your Bibles to John chapter 4, please, as we look at God's Word together. John chapter 4. We'll start at verse 39 and work our way through. John chapter 4, verse 39. Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did.

So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world. So 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 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 all see signs and wonders, you all will not believe. The official said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies. And Jesus said to him, Go, your son will live. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. And 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 that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, Your son will live. And he himself believed in all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. Let us pray to our God.

Oh Lord, we have your word open up before us, and we just confess through singing. We know that this is a word, the word handed down from ages past, from martyrs, from people who suffered persecution, hardships, so that we would have the word here now in 2025. in this corner of the world. I pray, God, that we would not take that lightly, but we as your people would see your word as deeply delightful and to be clung to even, Lord, as we fight against our sin.

God in heaven, let this be a sacred time in which your word is open and it's exegeted and we hear. I pray, God, that you would help us to deal with the sin that gets in the way, that we would rely upon the spirit of grace and his power and that we would, Lord, through this word, believe, have salvation, and experience a life even today. Thank you, God, for these things that are laid up for us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

May this be a day of celebrating the fact that Jesus has died and rose again and that salvation is ours in him. We thank you and praise you in his name. Amen. So, during seminary, before I went into full-time ministry, I worked as a cable guy or as a technician for Comcast Cable, which I'm assuming everyone in here knows what that is, but just in case you don't, that's like Spectrum Cable.

And so for several years, that's what I did. If you notice, pastors like to boast about the things they did before they were a pastor. You know, like, I used to be like one of you. I had a job, too, kind of thing, you know. I think Tim did it last week, and now I'm doing it. But nevertheless, it fits with the sermon, I think, so I'm going to say it anyway.

So my job as a cable technician was to go to houses where they desired to have Internet or TV. There was a source for that somewhere. I don't know where, it didn't matter, from Comcast, and the desire was to get that from that source to their TV or to their modem for internet. And my job was to go to the house and make sure the medium between the source, wherever it was, and their TV or modem, the medium in between was fit, was good, was able to do the job to carry from the source, from the pole to the TV or from the modem.

That was my entire job. Whether it was installation, there was no cable lines, no splitters, nothing ran, or if that was a trouble call, some kind of issue was happening. My job as a cable technician was to make sure that medium was sound, as sound as possible. That was my job. It's amazing to see all the different trouble calls I was put on, different issues, intermittent internet, cable going out.

God forbid your cable would go out in the middle of the Tigers beating the Cleveland Guardians. And so I would be brought there to figure it out. And my desire was to, again, make that medium as strong as possible. And it's interesting to see the different issues. A lot of times squirrel chews at the top of the cable line from the pole to the house. There would be squirrel chews at the start of that up on the pole 20 feet in the air.

I still grimace every time I see a squirrel up on a pole. It just irritates me, right? Get him off of there. But there's all sorts of different reasons why the lines, the medium would go bad, even down to the point that some customers decided that they didn't want to plug in their cable box and they wondered why TV wasn working But my job was to figure it out And here I look at John and he very very very concerned that his readers would receive the life that God has for them God is the God of life, the source of all life, and he has given it to us to enjoy.

And John is very concerned that the medium between the source of life and us receiving that would be intact and would be sound so we could receive that feed, so to speak. John is very concerned about our belief in Jesus because that is the very medium in which we receive the life from God and enjoy him forever. And we see that this is one of the main points that he writes this book, is that we would have solid and good belief.

That those of you who do not believe upon Jesus would read this and be convinced, I need to believe in Jesus to receive all that life is in God. And for you who go in and out of good belief and less than par belief, right, in and out intermittent, that you would remind yourself what is solid and good belief that I must rest myself on now. And here in this narrative before us, we get in the preparation of this narrative, the few verses of preparation for it, we see again a contrast, and we've seen it before, of good belief versus bad belief or subpar belief, we'll call it.

But in this narrative, it's an interesting narrative, in which we see someone go from bad belief, even Jesus using that, to then go to good belief. And we're going to see that that teaches us a lot about what does it mean to have good belief? What does it mean when I have this kind of subpar belief? And we're going to see this in the narrative of how we can go and solidify ourselves in good belief, which would receive that light.

So let's look at that contrast first as we set up this narrative, as it challenges us that those who have belief, we would stay firm on proper belief. Look at chapter 4, verse 43. Let's look at the setup for this narrative. 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 there's the setup of the narrative that's to follow. And there's a couple questions that we can have. If you read commentaries, there's plenty of ink about the difficulty of this text. I don't know if you noticed it, but what does Jesus mean when he says, hey, let's go to Galilee, my hometown, because no prophet has honor there. Why would he want to leave Samaria and go to a place where he's not going to be honored?

That's weird. And then the next major question that we need to answer in order to kind of get our footing here is when he goes to Galilee, they seem to honor him. They welcome him. You see that? The Galileans welcomed him, right? So it's strange that Jesus here in the text would say, let's go to Galilee, where no prophet is honored in their hometown, and then the Galileans welcome him, which seems to be very honorable.

Now some people try to figure this out by saying, well, Jesus is technically not from the north of Nazareth in Galilee. He's technically from Bethlehem in Judea where he left. So perhaps Jesus is saying, I'm leaving Judea where I'm technically from Bethlehem and I'm going to Galilee because no prophet gets honor in their hometown. But the problem with that interpretation is that John always locates Jesus as being from Nazareth, which is in the north in Galilee.

So it just doesn't fit. And I think a better way to look at this is, once again, look at verse 45. He came to Galilee, where he was from, his home region, and the Galileans welcomed him. So it seems to be honorable, but look at how he describes that welcome. Having, in verse 46, five, excuse me, verse 45, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast for they too had gone to the feast.

So these people in Galilee were believing, now think subpar belief here, but it's rooted in seeing signs and wonders and miracles that he performed at the feast in Jerusalem. Now do you remember what Jesus thought of that kind of belief? Do you remember that? Let's read again. Go back to John 2 at this feast and what Jesus thought of belief that's rooted in simply seeing signs and wonders from Christ.

Look at chapter 2 verse 23. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, right, John just alluded to this, many believed in his name. Many honored him, we could say, when they saw the signs that he was doing. So again, whenever we went through this a few weeks ago, we clapped our hands and said, all right. But Jesus, on his part, did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

You see, that's a subpar belief. It's rooted not in what we'll get to in a moment. It's rooted in just simply they saw him do these wonders and signs, these things that dazzled the eyes, and they believed in him base off of that, right? And this is a subpar belief. This is what Jesus means when he says, let's go to my hometown for no prophet gets honor in his hometown.

He knew he would go there and he would be met with subpar belief that's rooted in fickleness of, we saw the great things he did in Jerusalem. But before we move on then, let's ask this question. Why would Jesus want to go to a place where he's not going to be honored, right? Wouldn it make more sense that he would say actually let me back up for a moment Now let contrast that subpar belief right Let revert back just a second ago sorry of the subpar belief of rooted in the wonders and miracles.

Now, contrast that belief with the belief that he received from the Samaritans. Do you remember that? That just the last few weeks, we covered the belief from the Samaritans. And did he do any signs or wonders in Samaria? And the answer is no, other than knowing the Samaritan woman in a way that only Messiah could know. But he didn't do any amazing signs and wonders in front of the Samaritans.

And notice what their belief is rooted or resting on. Look at chapter 4 of 39. Just a few verses prior. We actually already read it. Many Samaritans from the town believed. There it is again. in him because of the woman's, underline that word in your mind, testimony, word, the word.

And this is a testimony. He told me all that I ever did, my sin. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them and he stayed there two days and many more believed because of what? His signs and wonders and miracles. No, because of his word. They said to woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed, here's the nucleus of their belief, he's the savior of the world, the savior of sins.

That's the essence of his messiahship. Not that he does dazzling wonders before our eyes, but his word declares that he is the savior of the world. So I want you to juxtapose, I want you to have both of those beliefs going on in your brain. Because this is what John is purposely creating this contrast. A belief that is rested on the word of God that finds its end, that he's the savior of the world, even my sins.

And a belief there in Galilee where he's not honored, that is, hey, we saw your wonders and miracles that you did in Jerusalem. That was pretty neat. So this is the contrast here. This is what Jesus is referring to when he says, let's go to Galilee, where no prophet is honored in his hometown, and he sees their belief, but it is fickle. It is not an honorable belief.

Now, let's go back to where I tried to get to too quickly. Why would Jesus want to go to a place where he's not going to be honored? Wouldn't it make sense for him to say, hey, let's stay in Samaria because I'm honored here. Look at their belief. This is solid. Let's not go to Galilee, my hometown, where I won't be honored.

They'll have a fickle belief. Why would he say, let's go to a place where I'm not going to be honored? I think we can really locate, there's probably several implications here, but I think we can locate two things. One is that Jesus, his gift to the nations, his gift to the world, his gift of righteousness even to you, if you put your faith in him, is found in him being dishonored by his own people.

He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. And coming forth from that dishonor came the gift to the nations that we in this room enjoy as we place our faith in him. It is a wonderful turn of events that Jesus came not to be honored but to be dishonored and then coming forth from that would come the gift that we get to enjoy even today.

But I think there's another reason that can really locate us well where we're at in this text, is that Jesus knew he was going to a place where he would not be honored with proper belief, and he's going to reveal a person going from improper belief, like we just talked about, that's rooted in wonders, to a richer, fuller belief, that is that he is Messiah, that he's the Savior of the world. Jesus knew he would go to a place and be dishonored and it would reveal that even when someone has a subpar belief, God can still use that to bring them to a full, well, good belief, which should encourage us. Because I hope that you're not thinking right now, well, I believed already and I believed upon him for salvation and it is his word that I believe, so I'm all set.

I can sit back for a while. you and I go in and out of good belief all the time if you are a miserable creature right now then that is because there is some kind of deficiency in your belief system like a cable line that's been chewed by squirrels that needs to be repaired and the repairing is to look at the essence of good or proper or rich belief we all need to hear this you who have not placed your faith in Jesus, you need to hear what true belief is. And you and I who go in and out of good belief, right? We need to hear again, what is the essence of the gospel?

What is the essence of belief? Oh, may I stand firm on that foundation. So this is what we're going to see. That's a setup of the narrative, right? He's going to a place with, and I don't really want to call it false belief here because he uses it for true belief let's just call it subpar belief and we're going to see that play out this man going to full true belief so let's look at it verse 46 so he came again to cana and galilee right he left judea made a pit stop in samaria had that this wonderful people uh coming to believe truly and now he stays he stays there two days and now he he comes again to the north into Cana and Galilee, his home region, where he had made the water wine.

Now I want you to pair up that phrase there. This is the same area where he made water into wine, and we covered that several weeks ago. That was the first work he did in this region. And now look at what he says at the end of this narrative in verse 54 after he does this work we about to go through now This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee The reason why I want to point that out is John is on purpose laying these two signs out for us and saying this has something to do with the kingdom here that you need to keep your eye on.

And the water and the wine we talked about, what does that signify? What does it signify that Jesus turned water into wine? Well, it signifies the life that we can have from Christ, This is the main point of John's writing. I write that you would believe and receive life in Christ, the life that comes from God, and it's like having water from water to wine, having the joys and pleasures that God provides.

So that was a sign that detailed life that God provides. And now here, this sign is paired up with this one in which it details proper belief to receive this life that Jesus offers. So he's kind of bringing them together, right? The main point of the gospel, right? That you would believe and receive life. Wine to water, water to wine is the life.

Belief is how we receive it. And now this is what this narrative is all about. What is proper belief? So let's look at this narrative now further in verse 46. And at Capernaum, there was an official whose son was ill. not an official. Most likely it's an official of King Herod.

King Herod had a king of, you want to call him a king, you know, he's basically the emperor, the Roman emperor's lapdog, and he I guess was a king in the north. And so this is probably King Herod's official. And we could go off on this, right? Notice what Jesus used to turn water into wine. He used the Jewish rights of purification, which he's saying the Jewish rights of purification won't give you life like I can.

And then here, I think it's the same thing. Look at the deficiency of the king of Israel. I am the king of Israel, but let's move on. This is an official probably of King Herod in that realm and his son, it says whose son was ill. So in verse 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.

Now I want you to notice, this man believed that Jesus could perform a miracle to save or to heal his son. That's his belief system. And I want you to notice how that's not a bad thing to want. If you're a parent, or even if you're not a parent, You could relate. Like, yeah, having a desire for your son to be healed from a sickness that's about to kill him, that's not a bad belief.

But I want you to notice that that is not the full, well-rounded, sufficient belief that Jesus demands of his people. That we can have, we can approach Jesus with all sorts of these reasons that are admirable. I want to get off drugs. I want to stop drinking so much alcohol. I want to have a better marriage. I want to go on and on and on.

I want to be happier. But those are deficient reasons as to what? That this is the savior of the world. He can save me from my sins. And so this man has a belief in Jesus, but it is again subpar. It is rooted in an admirable thing, but not the full thing.

And when it's just rooted in that, it is deficient. And there's many people that believe upon Jesus, follow him but their motivation isn't for the forgiveness of sins because he's the savior of the world it's because they can do a dazzling thing before their eyes like cure me from my alcoholism or even cure my bad marriage that is a deficient reason and in fact we see this in the what jesus says in verse 48 so jesus said to him unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe. There's Jesus bemoaning the fact that, yeah, the heart of your belief in me is the things I can do for you, even good things.

And that you there is actually plural. So he's actually making a statement about the whole region. He says, so Jesus said to him, unless you all see the signs and wonders, you all will not believe. He's bemoaning the fact that you require these signs and wonders. And I forgot to point out to it, but this is what Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians. You remember?

He says the Jews require wonders, or the Jews require, I forget the word that he uses, but it's in that realm. Jews, let's just go there. Let's do it. Let's get excited, and let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. What if it's 2 Corinthians chapter 1? That would be embarrassing.

I don't think it is, though. Yes, verse 22. Who saved? For Jesus, or I'm sorry, my goodness. First Corinthians chapter 1, verse 22. For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom.

This is a common element, a common problem of the Jews is that they demand signs. And this is, this man, he has a belief in Jesus, but it's rooted in a sign that he can provide, even a good one, to heal his son. Now, I want you to notice what this man wants Jesus to do. He wants Jesus to come with him to heal his son, right? You ever have a major issue and someone can fix it?

You want him, all the focus be with you on that issue. Come with me and fix this problem. And this is what this man wants Jesus to do. I have a son that's dying nearby. You're here. I know you can heal him.

Come with me and heal him, please. And Jesus bemoans, the only way you'll have any kind of belief in me is if you see signs and wonders, a common Jewish problem, right? And a common problem for all of us. And he says, the official answers to that bemoaning in verse 49, he said to him, sir, come down before my child dies. He's insistent. This is his concern.

His entire focus, not that the Savior of the world is before his eyes, but that there is someone who can perform the sign and wonder of healing his son. But again, notice, I want your eyes to go on the insistence of him to come down and do the work. But look at what Jesus says in verse 50. Jesus said to him, go, your son will live. So Jesus doesn't say, I will go.

And then he goes, and he does that sometimes as you look in the Gospels. But Jesus simply says, by word, go, your son will live. Now, again, remember the Samaritans and their belief. What was so good about it? They believed in the word that he said, right? And here, Jesus doesn't go to them and do this wonder and sign.

Instead, he simply pronounces it. It's done. He will live. And notice the man says, no, you've got to come with me. I need to make sure. Oh no, he doesn't do that.

Interesting enough, and I think now we're seeing the progression of this man's belief to go from subpar to actually full-throttled true belief. Because, you know, he says in verse 50, he says, go your son will live. And the man, look at this, believed the word that Jesus spoke to him. It went on his way. He believed the word Jesus spoke, and it was enough for him.

Now again, I have a ton of sons, and if one of them was dying, I would say, you know, come on, let's go and check it out ourselves. It would be very difficult for me to be like, okay, you said it, that's all right. And in fact, it goes even further with this man. If you notice it, look at what else the narrative says. He believed, he went on his way. In verse 51, and as he was going down this, this um i think i keep on saying servant i mean this official 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 and that's probably 1 p.m it could be in the morning but it's probably midday the fever left him and the father knew that that was the exact hour when jesus had said your son will live now what's remarkable about that did you catch that.

When did Jesus say that your son will live by his word only? The day prior. And this man believed the word and went on his way, and his way wasn't to go directly to his son to say did it work But instead probably did business deals and probably had stuff to do that he like satisfied All right he said it That enough for me I go about my business now The next day his servants come to him, said he's well.

And he knew that that happened the prior to previous day. Again, this man could have went home that day. He had all the whole day to get home and he didn't need to. He was satisfied with the word of God, with what Christ had said. And that was sufficient for him and whenever they tell him this is when this is when it happened he knew that's exactly when jesus declared it with his word that his son would live and then notice here at the end of verse 53 and he himself believed in all his household now again that belief there he already believed that jesus could do this work miracle he already believed that obviously he went out and traveled to him.

But so this belief here is a different kind of belief. This belief here that he believed in him and his household, it is like a full well-enriched belief that this is, I think, connected with the Samaritan belief, this is the savior of the world. I believe this belief of this man, he went from simply believing that he could do powerful miracles and works, heal his son, and this is indeed the savior of the world.

His whole household believed that this was Messiah. So what I think we're seeing in this narrative is a person that's kind of in the system of not honoring Christ with full belief. And we see him insistent that you would come and perform a sign, even if it's a sign that we would all understand why he would want it done. And he goes from that sort of belief to a trusting in the word of Christ that then manifests itself in a full-throttled belief upon Jesus as who he is as Messiah.

So this, of course, challenges us, right? What is your belief rooted in? What do you, as you believe upon Jesus, what is it rooted in? Or perhaps you have no belief at all. you might be interested in Jesus. You may hear that, again, as was already said, he can help you with certain issues. And what we see in this narrative is that you can have that deficient belief and Jesus will use that to create a full-body belief.

But you need to progress in your trust in Jesus. So again you might have this major issue in your life that causes you to see that I need help And that help comes from Jesus I have cancer I have whatever And I know Jesus has the answer. And you go to him because of that. But it cannot stay because of that. And we see from this narrative the progression that Jesus can even use a subpar belief like that and then progressively make it into a full-body true belief.

So have you come to know Jesus? Are you interested in Jesus right now? Because you know that he can do great things. The world is his in fullness therein. He can do whatever he wants. And do you come to him knowing that that's the case?

Well, beloved, your faith, your trust needs to progress into a belief upon his word that says, I am the savior of the world. I can forgive you of your sins. And that is your greatest need and desire. but again it challenges us that with those who have a true belief in Jesus we go in and out if you are struggling with misery right now and I'm not saying we all struggle with difficulties and we have hardships that we're facing but we face it as Christians with hope in Christ so if you're struggling with the misery aspect that's just completely I'm just hopeless I'm blinded by this hardship and I don't know what to do well is it possible and I would say yes that your belief is rooted in something that's not the word of Christ and what he says you actually need, but a sign or a miracle that you want manifested before you.

Think about the source of your misery right now. Think about the thing that keeps you up at night. Consider that for a moment, and you would love for the Jesus who created all things to take that away from you and create a miracle before you. But you know that that is sub-par belief. A full belief is to know the word of Christ and what has the word of Christ told you?

That you are a sinner, that he has come to give you righteousness through the forgiveness of sins, and now you can live this life in righteousness to him. So then it transformed. No longer will you say, oh God, just take this from me as a miracle, but you would say, oh Lord, you have promised me good things in your word of righteousness. May I use this thing for your glory and for my growth in the gospel.

You see, a belief that's firmly rooted upon the word of Christ will not cry, oh may this miracle be taken or may a miracle be had to take this thing from me but instead you see that Christ has promised you that he can forgive you of your sins and walk with you in that thing and grow you in righteousness. If he has left it there, it's because of that very reason. Do you have a full belief like that?

Because nothing will scare you more when you face a circumstance like that to then fall into this sort of, I need signs and wonders, Jesus. When instead you need to fall on, this is the word of Christ his gospel is true and he has promised me good things even in this hard situation that he will grow me after his image for this is the promise of God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose to conform them after the image of Jesus is this your hope is this your song of worship let us pray oh father I thank you for Christ Jesus the Lord. I thank you, Lord, that he calls us a higher calling.

Lord, it's an easy thing to want good circumstances. It's an easy thing to want what the Jews wanted, whether it's the Romans to be kicked out, whether it's to have plenty of food and grain and resources. We know, Lord, that you are the creator of all things. The fullness of the world is yours. And we know that you can give all things. but we know the most precious thing you can give us is your word and righteousness through Jesus Christ our Lord and so I pray that we would be like this man in this narrative that your word would be enough for us and I pray we would be like the Samaritans and this man this narrative in which we would see that this indeed is the savior of the world who can even know all my sins and yet offer me forgiveness by his blood may we be so overwhelmed by this salvation that we don't look to you as the baseline of our belief to simply miraculously take these things away from us, but instead we say, oh Lord, just let me conform myself to the image of Jesus by the work of his gospel.

May this be what our belief is founded in, rooted in his word and relieved, or the life that we see is to follow him as savior of our very souls. Oh God in heaven, I know there's people before me who are struggling with disbelief and struggling with bad belief. Even my own very soul goes in and out. I pray, God, that you remind us of these things, encourage us, and cause us to walk in new obedience because of the Savior who has done all things well.

Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.