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“Desperation, Resignation And Jesus Christ"
• 6.23.19 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
Text
• John 4:43-45 : "Now after
the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee. For Jesus Himself testified that a
prophet has no honor in his own country. So when He came to Galilee, the
Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the
feast; for they also had gone to the feast." : Jesus has had a tremendous,
impromptu, two day campaign in Samaria and now arrives in Galilee, the northern
portion of the nation of Israel.
- From a national standpoint, the
Galilee region is a part of Israel, but like Samaria, it has a very difficult
history, culturally.
- The area was known for it's
diversity and was in fact, once a gift to a Gentile King. King Solomon gave twenty
cities of the Galilee to Hiram the King of Tyre in I Kings 9:11.
- Later, the Assyrians left a
remnant of conquered people groups there when they conquered the 10 northern
tribes. Isaiah 9:1 calls Galilee the "Galilee of the Gentiles!"
- It's diversity gave way to
spiritual darkness, a perfect place for the "Light of the World" to
operate! Why would He go there? He had just been rejected in His home
territory!
- Jesus explained that prophets
were not valued by their own people. Jesus came to live in Nazareth, Galilee,
but had been born in Bethlehem, Judea. The south was already wary of Him.
- Jesus was viewed with suspicion
by the Jewish leaders, but He was welcomed and accepted by the Samaritans. And
as if on cue, upon arriving in the Galilee, the Galileans received Him too!
- They accepted Him, took hold of
Him. Why? Because they had seen what He did at the feast! This hearkens back to
Christ's cleansing of the Temple in chapter 2:13-22.
- The people thought it wonderful
that Jesus was counter to the usual religious leaders that they encountered. He
wasn't like the religious elite and the Galileans liked that!
- They had been at the feast ready
to worship and were likely wondering when someone was going to address the
corruption that was so easy to spot! The Lord's actions inspired them! Verse 46.
• John 4:46,47 : " So Jesus came again to Cana of
Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose
son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he
went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the
point of death." :
Jesus was back in Cana when He encountered this nobleman.
- The word speaks of a royal or
government official. This man might have worked for the Romans or for Herod.
- When the church began to move
away from being strictly Jewish, Manaen, a man who had been brought up in
Herod's house, was considered a Prophet or Teacher. (Acts 13:1)
- There is a much more immediate
kind of relation to Jesus listed in Luke 8:3.
- One of the women that supported
Jesus' ministry from her own substance, was Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's
steward. Could this nobleman have been Chuza himself?
- Whoever he is, the word
"nobleman" speaks of privilege, wealth, and resource. A man like that
has the world at his feet until an illness hits that money can't touch.
- This nobleman's son was sick. The
text indicates that he was chronically weak or diseased. As we've seen from
verse 47, the son was "at the point of death."
- Recall that they are in Cana.
This man's son was in Capernaum, about 25 miles from there. This man had made
quite a trek to come to Jesus!
- The moment that he heard that he
had returned from Judea, he went out with the express intent of bringing Him
back. He is bent upon the Lord returning with Him.
- Generally, such a wealthy or
powerful person might have been hesitant to seek Jesus out given the fact that
Jesus was not a member of the "elite." Sickness seems to focus a
person.
- This nobleman is desperate and
unashamed to call upon Jesus because He is his only hope!
- I can't say that I haven't prayed
for the Lord to send such a circumstance into certain men's lives. I can say
that I've prayed that He would allow such circumstances to be useful to His
purpose!
- At this verse, the man could not
have been thankful for what was taking place. I'm certain that he later thanked
God for what eventually drew him to seek Christ!
- I wonder what he thought as he
approached the Lord. Did he think he would ask politely or keep to his stately
composure? The language indicates that he repeatedly begged!
- This man was not accustomed to
such humiliation. People begged him for things! People passionately asked for
his assistance. Now, he is on the other end, desperate for the Lord's
attention.
- Everyone can understand this
man's predicament. The Lord's response though, was not immediately inviting or
even very gracious to our ears! Verse 48.
• John 4:48,49 : "Then Jesus said to him, 'Unless you people see signs and wonders, you
will by no means believe.' The nobleman said to Him, 'Sir, come down before my child dies!'" : It sounds as if the the Lord is
challenging this nobleman with His initial statement, but it seems more like a
comment on the situation that He was experiencing.
- Jesus is who He says He is regardless of what
He does or doesn't do for any person.
- He is calling all to believe upon Him, but
this man and all like him, will not believe in Him without signs or wonders.
- The translation here is a bit funny. It reads
"Unless you see signs and wonders."
- That word "you" is plural, so the
translators added in the word "people." The idea, I'd suggest, is
that the nobleman represents a type of person.
- Think about what it takes to be a nobleman
and the people that daily sought to take advantage of their position or
influence. Imagine the scams that he had seen.
- It's not likely that he accepted much that
couldn't be proven and that made his present moment before Christ a bit
difficult.
- This type of person will not believe unless
they see miracles and signs! Jesus is not meaning to discourage him. He is not
unaffected by his plight.
- He does want Him to believe upon Him
regardless of what He would do! "Believe in me despite what I do for
you!" Christ calls us to believe on Him because of who He is!
- I don't want to chain my faith to whether or
not He answers me in the way that I want Him to! That is a fool's faith and one
that is destined to fail!
- "I trusted Christ and by now, I expected
that He would have done this!" You tied your faith to an expectation, when
He never committed to make that change in your life, that way!
- The statement is completely lost upon the
noblemen. He continues to press the Lord. He says respectfully, humbly, but
repeatedly, "Sir, come down before my child dies!"
- He doesn't dispute what the Lord had said. He
just wants the Lord's attention upon His son.
- In a way, there is implicit agreement. The
man is caught. He realizes that what Jesus said was true of most people and
that his faith was not great before this, but he is asking in faith now!
- He would not have approached the Lord at all
if he didn't believe that He was able to affect change in his son's condition!
It took faith to seek the Lord out didn't it? His request proves it.
- All he needs Jesus to do is come and his
request will granted. That's as far as his faith in the Lord went. The Lord
responds in verse 50.
• John 4:50 : "Jesus said to him, 'Go your way; your son lives.' So the man believed the word that
Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way." : Jesus did not come with him. He simply sent him away with the
promise of life! "Your son lives!"
- How would you have responded, knowing that
all his hope was in the Lord's willing response? He came thinking that the key
to his son's healing was the Lord's presence with him.
- Now, he is being sent back, sight unseen to his
sick child and all he has is the Lord's Word?
- How many steps did the man make in agony and
how many did he make in faith?
- How many times did he chide himself for being
so gullible? How many words of encouragement did he utter? Can you imagine the
warfare that welled up in his mind?
- It's not easy to simply take Jesus at His
word, to walk away with increasing faith, yet that is the road that this man
was called to walk. It is the road that we walk!
- We have come to Jesus with a desperate
matter: Our own sin! We have begged Him to intercede and He has promised to do
so! We are walking home as well believing His word is true!
- The nobleman must trust that the Lord is
powerful enough to work remotely and good enough to keep His promise. To the
man's credit, he went away having believed what Jesus spoke to him.
- He put His faith in what Jesus had said,
determined to walk home believing Him. Verse 51.
• John 4:51-53 : "And as he was now going down, his
servants met him and told him, saying, 'Your son lives!' Then he inquired of them the hour
when he got better. And they said to him, 'Yesterday at the seventh hour the
fever left him.' So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus
said to him, 'Your son
lives.' And he
himself believed, and his whole household. This again is the second sign Jesus
did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee." : Notice the timing here. "As he
was going down, his servants met him and told him "yesterday."
- The nobleman came to Jesus in harried
distress, but he did not return to Capernaum with the same kind of anxiety. He
stayed the afternoon and evening and began his trip the following day!
- That is when his servants caught up with him.
Can you imagine what he thought when he saw their faces? Was it good or bad
news? It didn't take long for them to burst out in joy!
- "Your son lives!" Without skipping
a beat, he asks the men when this took place and it was about 1pm, the same
exact time that Jesus had promised him that his son would live!
- I know that he is asking through tears and
really only then to confirm what he knew, but it was this moment that belief rooted
in his heart. "He himself believed." It was a settled issue for him!
- He gained a living son that day and a family
that lives for eternity after the fact! He believed with his whole household!
This one act of healing brought the entire family into the Lord's Kingdom!
- Their suffering and their sadness was turned
to joy because Jesus was powerful and good enough to keep His word! This
miracle was the Lord's second sign.
- John quickly takes our minds to another
miracle that Jesus performed in chapter 5.
• John 5:1-4 : "After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to
Jerusalem. Now there
is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda,
having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed,
waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and
stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the
water, was made well of whatever disease he had." : Between the end of chapter 4
and the beginning of chapter 5, Jesus and His disciples have gone back
into Judea, Jerusalem specifically, for one of the mandatory feasts of God.
- When you read the word "feast,"
think "Wall To Wall Humanity!" Think massive crowds.
- When you look down upon a picture of the
walls of Jerusalem, the Sheep Gate is located on the northeast corner of
Jerusalem's wall. The pool in question, lays right outside of it.
- The pool is built upon a natural set of hot
springs and was a "bath house." The Jewish people that came to the
feast called it "Betheseda" which means "house of mercy."
- You can quickly see how it got it's
reputation. The pool was surrounded by those that were desperate for healing.
There is a multitude, a crowd in there! Why would they congregate there?
- John let us in on the belief among the
people, a local legend, about an angel that would come down to stir the water.
Whoever hit the water first, received their healing.
- The way that John writes this makes it appear
as if he believed it himself, which leaves us with a few options. One, an angel
really did come down to stir the water. This is possible.
- Angels have intersected with men since the
early period of Man's history. More times than not it was negative for men, but
there was interaction nonetheless!
- Second, there were people who actually
reported being healed and gave the pool the credit.
- We can't say for sure about possible
spiritual intervention or placebo effects among the desperate. It certainly
doesn't sound much like God.
- "Let the first one into the pool get a
healing." "Let the strongest and most able body get into the pool and
I'll reward them?" Doesn't sound like the way God usually operates. Verse 5.
• John 5:5-9 : "Now a certain man was there who had an
infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying
there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said
to him, 'Do
you want to be made well?' The sick man answered Him, 'Sir, I have no man to put me into
the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps
down before me.' Jesus
said to him, 'Rise,
take up your bed and walk.' And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and
walked. And that
day was the Sabbath." :
Have you ever considered what it is like to be infirm, sick or chronically ill
for any period of time?
- The man before us has been
afflicted with the same infirmity for nearly 4 decades! Like everyone else, he
is sitting nearby, hoping that it is his day to make it into the pool first.
- Jesus looked at him and
understood that he had been perpetually in this condition. Year after year,
this man lived in chronic pain and in the disappointment of failed attempts to
be healed.
- How many days had he been close?
How many times did the water change and he just miss it? We cannot pretend to
understand such human suffering.
- To consider what it is like to
live in this condition is somewhat beyond all of us. Initially, the Lord's
question seems callous. "Do you want to be made well?" "Are you
willing to be made whole?"
- It's hard for us to imagine, but
sometimes, people prefer their current state.
- They've become comfortable with
their condition and would rather live out their days in what they have learned,
than return to a life that would require something else from them.
- The man ignores the question and
defends his current state. He's not fast enough! Someone always beats him to
the water. We hate to bust in here, but that wasn't the question!
- The Lord asked him if he was
willing to be made whole! The Lord is standing there and for this man in this
moment, the entire story will rest upon his willingness to receive healing!
- What he can or cannot do is an
irrelevant sideline! What has or has not happened for this man is no longer the
point. Jesus just asks him if he is willing to be made whole!
- Since he didn't answer, the Lord
simply commanded him to stand up, take up his mat and walk off! Literally, he was
to keep walking about. "Have a nice stroll! Check things out!"
- Without hesitation, without
visible manifestation, the man does exactly that!
- Thirty eight years have passed
and in just 30 seconds, the Lord takes this man's infirmity right away from
him! That Saturday was the first Saturday that this man had freedom from
illness!
- Within the man's body, muscles
and joints were restored to working order as he stood to obey! What if he had
said, "I can't do that?"
- He didn't focus on what he could
do. He focused on what he was told to do! Unfortunately, he was walking while
carrying a burden on the Sabbath. Verse 10.
• John 5:10-13 : "The Jews therefore said to him who
was cured, 'It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.' He answered them, 'He who made me
well said to me, ‘Take up
your bed and walk.’ Then
they asked him, 'Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?' But the one who was healed did not
know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place." : If there was one group that could
make a healed man wish he were still sick, it was the religious Jews! "Why
didn't He heal me on Sunday!?"
- Jesus had told the man to take up his bed and
walk. He had healed him and He had commanded him. When Jesus heals you, He
calls the shots and when He is God, He picks the day!
- But when you live in Jerusalem on a feast
day, you have to consider that there are many more guardians of religion on
duty during the feasts.
- It wasn't long before one of them needed to
uphold the law and remind the man that it was against the law for him to be
doing what he was doing!
- The Jewish writings, the Mishna, contains
over 30 ways that a person can violate this law of "carrying a
burden." These included the commands not to put on false teeth or a
prosthetic leg!
- But what are you going to do when the man
that heals you tells you to do something!? Unfortunately, the man was unable to
find Jesus to pun the blame on Him!
- Interesting, but Jesus hadn't even stuck
around to take credit for this miracle! He slipped of into the crowd. The text doesn't indicate why, but He is not
done with the healed man. Verse 14.
• John 5:14,15 : "Afterward Jesus found him in the
temple, and said to him, 'See,
you have been made well. Sin no
more, lest a worse thing come upon you.' The man departed and told the Jews
that it was Jesus who had made him well." : The cured man wandered around the vast temple complex for some
time. He's had an emotional day!
- This man has just been delivered from a
nearly life long ailment. On the very same day, he is healed by a stranger and
then verbally accosted by those that should have celebrated with him!
- Why is he in the Temple? Where else would you
be!? He's been touched by God and the first place that he goes to is where God
has promised to put His Name!
- He wants to find the Lord in the Temple, but
instead, is found by the Lord in the Temple! The word indicates that the Lord
was intentionally seeking for this man.
- When it is used elsewhere, the thought of
inquiry, investigation and scrutiny are all in play. The essence is that the
Lord was working to find him. He had something important to share with him.
- When He found him, He offered a word of
warning. "Behold." Look at this turn of events. Consider what this
means. You are made whole. What will you do with that?
- In all of the years of this man's infirmity,
he never had the chance to consider certain avenues of sin. It just wasn't open
to him. It is possible that a life of sin landed him in the position he was in!
- Here he is now in the Temple of God and God
Himself warns him not to go down a path of sin. "Stop sinning or something
worse than a 38 year infirmity will come upon you!"
- How sad would it be for this man to be whole,
to have the freedom to fully believe in Christ, only to then, return to a life
that would separate him from Him!
- What a waste of a healing if this man would
give into sinful impulses!
- We aren't told of his belief, which is odd,
given that much is made of the belief of the nobleman. What we are told is that
he identified the Lord Jesus to the Jews.
- We'll look at the effect of that next week.
Conclusion
- Jesus stands at
the end of the road of desperation or resignation. He will touch the lives of
both, giving hope to all that come to Him!
- To both men,
He gives His Word. "Go your way, your son lives" and "Rise, take
up your bed and walk." He is powerful enough to affect their problems and
good enough to keep His promise!
- The question
for some will be, "Do you want to be made whole?" Will you let Him
work in your life? Will you trust Him to change your condition? I pray that you
consider that!
- John would
have you know that there is hope and it is found in Jesus!