A Dad Believes in Jesus

Yeah, great to see all of you here this morning, and we come to the part of our service where We, we get to have God breathe upon us through his God breathed word. what a, what a blessing this is that God has spoken to us, and that he has spoken to us in mercy, and in grace. and to that effect, I want to have you turn in your Bibles this morning to John 4. John chapter 4 for our time of study and God's word this morning.

We're looking, we're in a miniseries studying John 3 and 4, looking at Jesus' interaction with Nicodemus, and also with the Samaritan woman. We've learned a lot, looking at those two conversations. but we've also gone beyond that. And, at the end of chapter 3, there was an exchange between John the Baptist and his, disciples.

We learned a lot from that. but we come this morning to the very end of John chapter 4, beginning in verse 43, all the way through the end of the chapter, a little story that has absolutely nothing to do with the Samaritan woman. But it's in chapter 4. And we're doing a study through John 3 and 4.

So we will study it. And this, there's so much here, guys, this will be a real blessing to you as I know, this passage has been, to me, it's just such a privilege to be able to study God's word, together. If you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be a dad believes in Jesus. A dad believes In Jesus.

and this, story that we're going to be looking at this morning, we're going to observe. How a man comes to Jesus. And the evangelistic tool that God uses to bring this man to Jesus. is called parenting.

And it's my opinion as a parent, I've been a parent for 24 years, and those of you that have been a parent for any length of time know that this is true. That the ministry of being a parent is a transformative ministry, transforming the parent. God gives us children, and we look at our children, we're like, OK, I got to bring up this child and the nurture, and the discipline of the Lord, I've got to care for this child and nourish. this child and all of my children providing for them and raising them for the Lord.

And so we invest ourselves in doing that, and we watch our children over the years grow and change, emotionally and physically and spiritually. And we don't really notice it all the time from day to day. But over that course of time, we are changing as parents in ways that are just as drastic, if not even more drastic, than the changes that are taking place in our children. 20 years go by, 20 years go by of parenting, and we are radically different people than we were 20 years earlier.

As someone has once said, God gives us children in order to grow us up. God looks at us in our immaturity. And, in fact, I'll just say God looked at me and my immaturity, and he's like, wow, Milton really needs to mature. He really needs to grow up.

He really needs to change quite a bit. So I know what I will do, I will give him children. And, and God has done that. He's done amazing things in my life and in my wife's life through the children that He has given to us.

Parenting is a ministry that will strip you bare. It's a ministry that will bring you to the edge of sanity, right? In fact, as a parent, you will get to make forays into the outer regions of sanity many times in front of your children. They'll get to see you go insane.

In various moments, parenting will bring you, it will take you miles and miles beyond the outer limits of anything you can remotely do in your own strength. It is a ministry in which you will find yourself laughing 1000 laughters, and weeping 1000 tears. It's a ministry where your heart will be wrung, it will be rendered vulnerable, and you will be left broken in one moment, broken with grief, grieving over your child, or grieving with your child. And in another moment, your heart is soaring with joy.

Parenting is a ministry in which, as one mother put it, you discover yourself to be far more of a demon, and far more of a saint than you ever would have imagined possible, prior to having children. Parenting is a ministry that will either drive you to Jesus, or drive you crazy. I really mean that, unless you're in denial, there might be a third option if you're in denial, the stakes are so high, your children are profoundly loved by God. And for that reason alone, they merit your richest, most loving investment.

Your children are also profoundly hated. By Satan. your child, your children are eternal souls that will live somewhere forever. All of the wealth of the world combined is not as valuable as one of your children's soul.

That's how valuable your children are. Your child bears the image of God himself and as an image bearer of God is entitled to the most loving investment that you can give to that child. Your children have powerful enemies aligned against them, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Your children are spiritually dead and incapable.

Even of responding to Christ, apart from a miraculous, regenerating work of the Spirit of God in them. Your children are born in original sin with a propensity toward evil. Have you noticed that? how many of you have noticed that?

OK, And so we've got all of this, the stakes are so high. And the need is so great, the brokenness in our children, the brokenness of sin is so deeply entrenched, and our children come forth from their mother, and God holds them up before us and says, parent, that. Disciple that bring this up in the nurture and discipline of the Lord, our children are profoundly beautiful, and profoundly broken. They are fallen, and they are awesome.

As John Piper says, describing all of us, but we'll apply it to children this morning. Your children are fallen awesome. And what a responsibility to parent them. And if you will enter into the task of parenting your children with all of your might, you will be changed by that journey.

Gary Thomas in his book, Sacred Parenting says it this way, unless you are stone cold spiritually, virtually spiritual corpses, the journey of caring for, raising, training, and loving children will mark us indelibly and Powerfully. We cannot be the same people we once were. We will be forever changed, eternally altered. S spiritually speaking, we need to raise children every bit as much as they need us to raise them.

In our story this morning, we're going to meet a man who would say amen to everything I just read. We're going to meet a man trying to be a good dad. We're going to meet a man who's trying to be a good parent. He takes upon himself the responsibility to get his son the best care possible in a dire situation.

This is a dad. He's owning the responsibility to go out and get the care for his son that his dying son needs, and the whole process, the whole dynamic of trying to do the dad thing appropriate to this situation to serve his son in the best way possible, ends up leading this dad straight to Jesus. This man's ministry of parenting. Took him to Jesus, took him.

Within view of his own bankruptcy. And took him to Jesus. At the beginning of this story, this dad wants to get healing for his dying son. By the end of the story, this son gets something even better than healing.

He gets a transformed dad, who himself believed in Jesus, and then led his whole family into that faith. Wonderful story, beginning in verse 43 of John 4. Let me just read it to you beginning in verse 43. After the two days, Jesus has been in Samaria.

And he's been there for 2 days. And then after the 2 days that he was in Samaria, he went forth from there into 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 that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they themselves also went to the feast. Therefore, he came again to Cana of Galilee, where he had made the water wine.

And there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him and was imploring him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe. The royal official said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies.

And Jesus said to him, Go. Your son lives. And the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off, and as he was now going down, his slaves met him. Saying that his son was living, so he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better.

Then they said to him, Yesterday at the 7th hour, the fever left him. So the father knew that it was that hour in which Jesus said to him, Your son lives, and he himself believed, and his whole household. This is again a 2nd sign that Jesus performed when he had come out of Judea into Galilee. This is the word of God, and may God help us to understand.

His word this morning. We're going to look at the Father's, his faith, and even the transformation that he undergoes in the story this morning. But before we actually get into that, let me just deal with something that a couple of quick things that may have registered as I just read the story. I know some of you, I know the way you think.

you're sharp, and you notice things in the text. So let me try to address them in verse 43. Jesus, it said, leaves Samaria and comes into Galilee. This is an interesting move on Jesus' part, at least when you consider his rationale for leaving Samaria and coming into Galilee.

Look at verse 43. And after the two days in Samaria, he went forth from there from Samaria into Galilee, for or because Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor. In his own country, what is that? we all know that Samaria is not his own country, right?

where his home country was? Broadly speaking, it was Israel. But more narrowly speaking, it was Galilee. OK, because Jesus was raised in Nazareth, which was in Galilee.

So what Jesus is saying is, we're going to get up, pack up, we're leaving Samaria. Keep in mind, Samaria was a place where Jesus was being honored. The people just heard His word and believed in Him as the Messiah, and they're rejoicing in Him. Jesus' ministry has been wildly successful in Samaria, as we've seen over the last few weeks.

And now after two days, he says to his disciples, Let's get up and go and let's go into Galilee, because a prophet has no honor in his own country. It just seems odd. What Jesus is basically saying is, I want to leave this place where I am being honored and go to Galilee, where there is no honor for me. Why was Jesus willing to leave a place of honor to go to a place of no honor?

Well, there may be many reasons for that. One of the reasons is to keep an appointment with a certain father who's going to need him. And for the moment, I think it's just worth savoring the fact that Jesus was willing to leave a place of honor and to come to a place of no honor in order to be there for at least this dad in his moment of dire need. This is a harbinger of the cross in a way.

Think about the incarnation. It was Christ leaving heaven, the highest place of honor, and come into this world which received him not, right, where there was less honor, and then even being here, Jesus here in this story, he leaves Samaria where he's being honored and comes into Galilee, where there is no honor for him. And ultimately, Jesus will go to the ultimate place of no honor, which is The cross. Why?

So that from that position, he could be there for us, and he can give to us what we need for life. And for godliness. We have a savior who was willing to go to the ultimate place of, of dishonor. That he might provide us with what we need.

He was willing to go to the ultimate place of dishonor, the cross. In order that he might be there for us and to be there for us as parents in order that we might have access to Him and be able to obtain from Him what we need to be the parents that God wants us to be and to give our children what our children are entitled to receive from us. What a wonderful savior we have. So hopefully that explains that and we can appreciate that, but then that sets us up to be a little confused by the next verse in verse 45.

So he says, Let's leave Samaria. Let's go to Galilee, where, a prophet has no honor in his own country, so we're going to go to a place where there is no honor. So they come into Galilee and look what it says in verse 45. So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans received him.

So it seems like they're honoring Him. They're happy to see him. Welcome home, Jesus. Is this not honor?

It seems on the surface that it is honor of some sort until you keep reading. They received him. Why? Having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they themselves also went to the feast.

Here comes the miracle worker. The worker of signs and wonders, we're going to get to see more dazzling displays of supernatural power and so they're receiving him not as the Messiah like the Samaritans did, but they're receiving him as a worker of signs and wonders. This actually takes us back to the very end of John 2. Look at what the text says in John 2:23 and 24.

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, so that's it's the same connection here. Many believed in his name. Why? observing his signs, which he was doing, but Jesus on his part, was not entrusting himself to them.

They're believing in him. That sounds great. But all is not well. Jesus, they believe in him, but he doesn't believe in them.

He's like, I'm not going to trust you. I'm not going to trust myself to you. Because there's a defect in your faith. It's not a true saving faith that you have in me.

You simply believe in me because I do miracles, I do signs and wonders, and understand that. the nature of these people's mindset is not that they needed to see a sign. Show me one sign and I'll believe in you forever. That's not really what these people are being driven by.

They need to see continuous signs in order to keep believing in Jesus. He's the sugar daddy, as it were, that just keeps supplying miracles. It's a, what have you done for me lately? faith.

It's, yeah, I saw a sign several weeks ago, but what, I've been following Jesus. I haven't seen a sign lately. I'm going to stop following him. It's that type of attitude that they had in Jerusalem.

The people of Galilee are thinking exactly the same way. So they're receiving him because they're going to get to see a sign, they're going to get to see a wonder. Here comes the miracle worker, but they're not believing in him. They're not receiving his teaching.

They're not listening to his words. And so Jesus, even when he comes into Galilee, his approach is the same, he's not going to entrust himself completely to them. So this is the context in which our story takes place. Among these Galileans was a certain dad who lived in Capernaum, whose son is dying.

This dad's faith, though, is very different. than the faith of many others in the region of Galilee, as he goes about trying to get his son the help that he needs. This man had a faith that was such that Jesus actually did entrust himself to this man. So let's look at this man's faith and his journey, and be blessed and benefited by it.

We're going to observe 5 steps that this dad took in his journey toward a mature faith in Jesus that proved to be life changing for him and influential with his household. step number 1, we find beginning in verse 46, this man goes to Jesus and persistently begs Jesus to do a miracle for his son. It says in verse 47 that when like Jesus is in Cana, when this man who lived in Capernaum heard verse 47 that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he, this dad, went to him and was imploring him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

This guy was a royal official.

He worked for King Herod, for Herod Antipas, who wasn't technically a king in the eyes of the Roman Empire, but he was viewed as a king by the Jews. This guy worked for Herod, so he had access to no doubt medical resources and the best doctors. No one could help his son. And so he's going to Jesus.

He heard about Jesus. He knows enough about him to know that he has the power to take care of my son. And Jesus has the heart to where if I come to him, and I let him know my need, his heart is such that he will respond, and he will help me with my son, and he will heal my son. The problem is that Jesus is in Cana of Galilee.

This man lives in Capernaum. That was just on the north side of the Sea of Galilee. The distance between Capernaum and Cana is 16 to 20 miles. The traveling distance between the two is anywhere from 16 to 20 miles.

So this official, it's not just leaving his home and going down the street and finding Jesus. No, he got on his horse and he traveled at least 16 miles, a good part of that going uphill. to Cana, in order to get to Jesus. And when he arrived at his destination, he found where Jesus was.

And the text tells us that he was imploring. The idea is he was begging Jesus, and the tense of the verb suggests that he was doing it more than once. He didn't just go to Jesus and say, hey, my son's dying. And Capernaum, could you come with me and heal my son?

And Jesus said, Oh, OK, sure. No, he was continuously Imploring, he was begging, he had to do it more than 1, more than 2 times, more than 3 times. So implied in this is that he asked Jesus, can you come down with me to Capernaum and heal my dying son? And Jesus didn't respond.

He didn't say, yes, I'll go with you. So the man asked again, and he still gets no response, no affirmative response from Jesus. So he keeps on asking and begging, because he's not getting a response affirmatively from Jesus. Why is Jesus being slow to respond here?

Is it because he doesn't care? I don't think so. I think it's because he's wanting the genuineness of this man's faith to shine forth, and we'll see that as the story continues to unfold. Many of the Galileans demanded signs before they would believe in Jesus.

This man right now is getting no signs from Jesus. He's getting no response from Jesus. He's getting no yes, or affirmative reply from Jesus. He's not getting anything from Jesus.

And what? He keeps begging Jesus. He doesn't stop. He doesn't give up.

And he also doesn't give up on Jesus and move on to someone else. He could, he could have said, I've asked 5 times. I'm not getting any answer from him. what?

I'm going to go find someone else. No, this, he is fixated on Jesus. I've traveled 16 miles. I want Jesus to come to my house.

He's the only one that can heal my son. He's not really answering me, but what? I'm just going to keep asking him and no one else. So no signs, and yet he is still evidently believing in Jesus.

That leads to a second step that this man takes in his journey toward a more mature faith in Christ. That influences his household, and that is he persists in pleading for his son in spite of Jesus' rebuke. This is really interesting, verse 48. So Jesus said to him, unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.

you might want to mark the word you, there, unless you people, that word you is plural. He's not just speaking only to this man. the new American Standard translators put the word people in to make it very clear to you, the reader, that this you is plural, and that's a wise choice on their part. So Jesus isn't really attacking this guy and singling him out.

He just speaks of this man as a representation of all of the people of Galilee. And he says, unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe. What is Jesus doing here? Is he criticizing this man's faith?

Is he seeing a defect in this man's faith that this man has actually come all this way? Because he's like, yeah, my son is dying. And, oh, what, I can go to Jesus and get him to do a miracle, and there will be a sign and a wonder. And, and then I can believe in him.

Is that really, is Jesus pointing out to him that what, I see that in your faith. I don't think so. Many commentators say that that is what Jesus is doing. They may be right.

But whether he is or not, I think there's no doubt that Jesus is being slow to respond affirmatively to this man. And he's now saying what he says to him now, pushing back at him, behaving in this way that's designed to draw the reality and the beauty of this man's faith to the surface so that it's on full display. In one sense what Jesus is saying is, You're not like the rest of the Galileans, are you? Are you like all the others who have to see signs and wonders in order to believe in me and to keep believing in me?

Should I entrust myself to you? That's the vibe. Just are you like all these others? And The man's response makes it clear that he's not, but what is Jesus doing?

Write down the reference Matthew 15, I forget what the verses are, but you have a, a somewhat similar situation where there was a Canaanite woman who, who came to Jesus, and she was literally begging Jesus to come and heal her daughter. Remember that story, who was demon possessed? And what, the text tells us Jesus didn't answer her a word. Not a word, just ignored her.

And, and what, she didn't quit. She kept on begging and persisting. And then Jesus finally replies, and he says, I was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel. And you're not of Israel.

That's his reply. So first he doesn't answer her word, then he throws this at her, and she keeps persisting still. And then he says it's not appropriate to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. Most of us would have walked away in a huff just when we got no reply from him.

And then for him to say, I was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel, most of us would have quit there. And if any of us were still persisting, to, to persist further, and then for Jesus to say, it's not appropriate to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs, which by the way, is what you are, being a non-Jew, we would have walked away in a huff. what this woman said, She still kept persisting. And she said, Yeah, but even dogs can have table scraps.

And what Jesus said? He said, Oh woman. Your faith is great. Be it done to you.

As you wish, you can have whatever you want from me. And then we realized, oh, that's what Jesus was doing. It's not like, oh, I don't want to minister today. I don't want to heal someone today.

Cast out demons, my goodness, I'm tired, I'm exhausted. I wish this lady would go away. Now, Jesus, he always thinks of everything. He's behaving this way.

So that by giving her no answer, By giving her pushback twice that it would cause to shine forth from her the true nature of her faith. That's what he's doing. And that's what I think Jesus is doing with this royal official, this dad. Being slow to respond and yet he still persists.

And, and then saying, unless you see signs and wonders, you people just aren't going to believe, and the guy doesn't, walk away in a huff. No, he's like, Please Please come down before my son dies. Look at what he says. He says, Sir, come down before my child dies.

By the way, that word sir is the Greek word for lord. so that may tell us something about his mindset, Lord, come down before my child dies. What he's saying is, I'm not interested in seeing any kinds of signs in order to believe I've already traveled 16 miles to find you. That says something about what I believe right now.

I've singled you out of all the people in Cana. You're the one I want to talk to. You're the one I want to come to my house. You're the one that I want to heal my son.

And I believe in you. I'm not going to anyone else. And even in the face of Jesus' pushback, this man still presses his claim saying you have to come down, Jesus, before my child dies. I'm not trying to get some miracle out of you in order to find out whether or not you are the Messiah.

My child is dying, and he needs you. That's what I'm thinking about right now. I don't need some cheap magic trick. That's not what I'm after from you.

I need you to come back with me so that my son can be healed. I'm not interested right now in a theology discussion or an apologetic about your identity. I already know enough about you to know that only you can heal my son. And you have the heart that will hear my heart and do something about it.

And that's why I've traveled 16 miles to find you. And that's why I'm not going to leave you alone until I get some answer from you. This man As a wonderful faith. Wonderful faith.

He's very different than the Galileans. That leads to a third step in this man's journey toward a really powerful, influential faith that impacts his own family. And that is he believes in the word of Jesus regarding the life of his son. Verse 50, and Jesus said to him, go, go, your son lives.

And the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off. I love this. Go, go home, Jesus says. Your son lives, and that's a statement that his son.

is healed. Jesus is actually giving this man something better than what this man was asking for, right? this man traveling 16 miles, what is that? I don't know if he went by horse or by foot, but let's just say he went by horse.

that's, that's a decent journey to travel to Cana. He's wanting Jesus to come back with him. There's time involved in that, hours of time involved in that. This man and his plan A in his head, his son, best case scenario is still hours away from Jesus being by his bedside.

And being healed by Jesus, Jesus does something better than what this man is asking for. Turns out it was worth the wait. Jesus says your son lives, he heals his son right away. No waiting for Jesus to get there by his bedside.

He speaks the words and his son is healed. So what we see is this man brought to Jesus a plan A. Here's, here's what needs to happen. Jesus, you need to come back with me to Capernaum, and heal my son from my son's bedside.

Jesus sets aside this man's Plan A and replaces it with a Plan A plus. And says, I'll do better than that. I'll heal him right now. Right now.

We're good at making plans, aren't we? we got We've got a lot of plans, and a lot of times we'll come to God and say, Hey, I've got a great plan for you to execute. Here's what you need to do in the life of my child. Here's what you need to do in the life of my spouse.

Here's what you need to do in my marriage. Oh, this is, this is Plan A. This is perfect. When God looks at your plan, and says, no, I'm not going to do that.

I'm going to do this instead. His plan is always the A plus plan. Always the A plus plan. Jesus says, go, your son lives.

What powerful words. Jesus' pronouncement indicates that he has power over distance, distance is no obstacle to him. It turns out Jesus didn't need to travel 16 miles to Capernaum in order to heal this man's son. He doesn't need to be 2 ft away or actually be able to physically touch somebody in order to heal them.

He can just speak the word from 16 miles away. Distance means nothing to him. He can think the thought and say the word and sells. Inside that boy's body 16 miles away immediately began to act differently.

That's the power of our Savior. This is Jesus who spoke the world into existence. This is the one who said, Let there be light. And there was light.

He spoke the worlds into existence. He's the one who holds the entire universe together. By the word of his power, the New Testament tells us, it's his word that holds The universe together. Jesus' words are frightfully powerful.

He speaks no idle words. When he says, Your Son lives. That's hugely powerful. 16 miles away, atoms and molecules inside of a little boy's body immediately obey and began behaving differently and rearranging themselves.

And he's healed, and distance proved no obstacle to Jesus. Your son lives. Your son lives a few simple words, but so powerful. One writer says it this way on paper as we read, Your son lives from the printed page.

It does seem little. Your son lives too little. Yet as they spoken by Jesus, it was mighty. It bore all the power of Jesus' will, a divine pledge, and unconditional assurance, and absolute promise.

And by the way, when Jesus says your Son lives, he's not just reflecting omniscience, like, I happen to know that your Son is alive, and I'm speaking truthful words to you that conform to reality. This is not just a demonstration of his knowledge that the boy was living, as one writer says, Jesus is speaking a word of power, a healing word, not a word of prophecy or clairvoyance. Like Jesus, let me say it this way, he's not just speaking truthful words that conform to reality.

He's speaking words that create reality.

They change reality. The boy is dying. Jesus says, Your son lives, and reality changes to conform itself to the words of Jesus. That's the power of Jesus' words.

And by the way, if Jesus can just say your son lives, and the deed is done from 16 miles away, imagine how powerful all of his words are. And so many of his words are recorded for us on the pages of Scripture, and we get to read them and memorize them and have these words from Jesus coursing through our hearts and minds. That's a huge blessing. Just realize that when you, when you study and listen to and read and memorize and meditate upon the words of Jesus, these aren't just words that happen to conform to reality, they alter reality.

They create reality. And we get the privilege of having those words inside of us. Read your Bibles, read all of the Bible, it all points to Jesus. All of the Bible are the words of Jesus, but read the Gospels.

And hear his pronouncements. And it will be so powerful in changing you. Well, how does this royal official respond? here's the crazy thing, he believes in Jesus.

He believes the word of Jesus. Jesus says, go, your son lives, the man believes and goes. Without any tangible proof that his son had actually been healed. He took Jesus at his word and started off for home.

This man is thereby indicating, I don't need signs and wonders. I don't need to see anything. I've heard the word of this one. And that's all that I need to hear.

I believe one writer says, this officer has nothing but Jesus' bare word. And this is enough. It turns out. This man is not like the Galileans.

He's like the Samaritans. The Samaritans hear the testimony of a woman, they hear the word of a woman giving testimony to what Jesus had said to her, and they believe upon hearing, and then they come and invite Jesus to stay with them. He does for two days. And they say their testimony is, we believe because of His word.

They didn't need any signs. And neither does this man. Go, your son lives. That's all I need from you, Jesus.

I'm going to go right now. Thank you very much. And I know. I know that your words don't just conform to reality, they are reality.

They change Reality and I believe I believe This man's attitude is if Jesus tells me to go home, he tells me my son lives, I'm going to believe in him. I'm going to go home. I'm going to do what he says. This is huge trust for this man.

This is a real test. Because this man is now going to turn around and walk away from the one he knows is the only one who can cure his son. And he's going to walk 16 miles away from him. This is it.

You don't, you don't just walk home and oh, actually, my son isn't well, I'm going to go back and this time I'm going to make sure I bring Jesus with me. This is all or nothing. And yet he's willing to turn around and walk away from Jesus, 16 miles. He's that confident in the truthfulness of the words of Jesus, the power of the words of Jesus.

There's also submissiveness here. He could have said, Jesus, I appreciate that, but You must have misunderstood my plan. My plan was that you come with me, and then from my child's bedside. That you heal him.

He could have done that. He could have still demanded, No, you have to come with me. You have to come with me. But he doesn't.

He submits, this man does not merely believe that his son is healed. The son, or this man is actually OK with his son being healed the way Jesus chooses to heal him. If Jesus has a different plan than me, that's OK with me. That's OK.

I'll set aside my Plan A, and I'll go with his Plan A plus. He submitted to Jesus' plan over his own. And so this is a wonderful trust that demonstrates a great spirit of submissiveness. It's so hard for us because we like to manufacture plans and we like to bring our best laid plans to God, don't we?

And then to let go of those plans. And God says, no, I'm not going to do that. Here's what I want you to do instead, to, to set aside the idols of our plans, and to just submit to what he says. That's, it's a crazy thing to do.

And the only thing that makes it not crazy is his total power and trustworthiness, His love and His grace. When you think of it that way, it all makes perfect sense, and this man gets it. He gets it. There's a 4th step that this man takes in his journey toward a fully mature faith in Christ, and that is he seeks to understand the healing of his son in connection with Jesus, says as he was now going down as slaves met him, saying, That his son was living.

So at whatever point Jesus spoke those words, the son was healed. We're going to see that in just a moment. When the servants in the house saw that, whoa, He's fine. He's up and walking about.

there's no more threat of his dying anymore. This is really amazing. I don't know if they figured out that a miracle had occurred. But whatever, they observed that he's OK now, and it's totally fine.

So we're going to rush toward Cana and get word to his dad as quickly as possible, so that he can know that his son was living. And so here comes the dad, and he's going back down to Capernaum. They're coming up from Capernaum. They meet somewhere between Cana and Capernaum, and they inform him that his son was living.

He was dying. Now he's doing the opposite. He's living. A miracle has occurred, and they inform him of this.

And so how does the man respond? So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. I wonder if you would have thought to do this. And it would have been OK if you didn't think to do this.

I don't know if I would have thought to do this. But this guy where he's at, That thought comes to his mind. when did it happen? I'm not just content to know that he's better and he's living.

I want to know when, what he's up to. He's wanting to make the Jesus connection. That's what he's up to. And he's not.

Being driven by doubt to do that, like, oh, I wonder if Jesus had anything to do with that. So let me find out when it happened. Now, this man knows he already believes that this is Jesus doing. He wants to know the time in order to confirm what he already believes.

And so they say, well, it was In the 7th hour. 7th hour of the day yesterday, the sun was actually, at a certain point in the sky when, when the fever left him and 7th hour. What that means is the seventh hour after sunrise, sunrise roughly 6 a.m. in the morning.

So we're around 1 in the afternoon when this guy was in Cana with Jesus and Jesus said, Your son lives. And so they're telling him yesterday around 1 in the afternoon he just miraculously was better and was not dying anymore. The fever totally left him and the man. The dad is like that's exactly the moment of the day.

When Jesus said, your son lives. The dad has made in his own mind the Jesus connection. Real quick, let me point something out. Notice the word yesterday here.

there are liberal scholars who say they look at the word yesterday and say this is proof that this never really happened. Because if it was 1 o'clock, that Jesus said, your son lives, and this man is traveling by horse, which he probably was, a normal dad would get on his horse and make haste back to Capernaum, right? 16 miles at 1 in the afternoon, starting off, he could have made it back by the end of that day. And yet here the servants are finding him on the day after, saying it was yesterday about such and such a time that the fever left him, and some writers say there's no dad who would take this much time getting back home.

But such writers don't understand the nature of faith. This man believed Jesus' words. So what that means is Jesus said, Your son lives, and the dad's like, my son is fine. And he didn't feel any need to frantically rush back home to see if it was really true or in case it might not have been true, to tend to his son, No, my son is fine.

He's in Jesus' care. It's all good, and he rested his horse, took care of whatever he needed to take care of, and he's just making his way back home, fully confident that his son is healed. It makes total sense. To a believer To a nonbeliever, this would not make sense.

This man fully expects when he gets home to find a healed, delivered son. So they meet up with him and say it was at this time yesterday, that the fever left him at one in the afternoon and the dad makes this connection. That's when Jesus spoke the words, your son lives. I believe this dad is asking this question, wanting to know the timing because this dad is building a narrative.

He, he's planning on telling the story. and I, you guys are probably like this. I'm like this, when things that are amazing happen, immediately your mind starts, you're enjoying it, but you're also thinking about the telling of this. How do I tell this to other people?

And you want the details, you want as many details as you can get. And this is a compelling detail. This man wants this information, and he's delighted to know it was exactly at the same moment that Jesus said these words that the fever left my son, the dad, when he gets home, he's going to sit the family down and say, let me tell you a story of what Jesus has done. And it's going to include this particular detail.

He's making the Jesus connection. He doesn't hear that his son's fever left him and he's thinking, Oh, well, that's great news. But I wonder, I wonder if that actually had anything to do with Jesus or not. Maybe it was just chance.

He could have thought that, but no, he's convinced Jesus had something to do with it. This blessing is from Jesus, and he's thinking this through and asking this question in order to make the Jesus connection. Let me urge you to do the same thing. In your life and with your children, the truth is that any blessing that any of us ever have, big or small, there's always the Jesus connection.

We have that blessing because he purchased that blessing for us at the cross. Whenever our children receive any blessing from Jesus. Jesus is the source of that good that we see in them. We should train our children with this mindset that any blessing that they have received, any success that they experience, that all of that.

is a received blessing. It has come from Jesus. It's not a chance thing. We make the Jesus connection, and we tell our children, this has come from your Lord.

This is a gift from him, this success, this giftedness, this ability, this achievement. Please make the Jesus connection and understand Jesus is the source of this. If you don't do this, you're going to raise arrogant children. Proud of their accomplishments, proud of their righteousness, proud of the fact that they're smarter and better than everybody else.

We as parents need to make the Jesus connection too. When there is good in our children and maybe they're soaring in some way. A lot of times we're quick to make the me connection. Like, hey, see, see my child, let me make some connections for you.

That's good parenting. That's where that comes from. You want to know where that comes from? It comes from good parenting.

And here's the five things we do as parents that are just nailing it that produce this type of result. They're actually people with that mentality. They're quick to make the me connection. This dad isn't interested in that.

He could have told the story that, yeah, that was the same hour that I exacted from Jesus. Those words, like I'm the hero of the story. I traveled 16 miles. And I got this from Jesus.

No, it's all about Jesus, and he wants the glory to go to Him. That's where his focus is. There's a 5th and final step that this man takes in his journey to a fully formed mature faith in Christ. And that is he believed in Jesus with his own with his whole household.

It says, and he himself believed and his whole household. This is interesting. John already told us the man believed Jesus' word. And now he's telling us again that this man believed.

So he's already said this man believed the word of Jesus. And now he's telling us again that this man believed. Before he believed his word, now he just believes. I believe he's just indicating this man's faith is now broad and all encompassing.

He believed before, but now his faith goes to a deeper and broader level. He's a full on confirmed believer in the Lord at this point. Also, John is telling us before the man believed the word of Jesus. Now he's telling us the man believed with his household.

He's not believed. alone, he's believing together with his family and his servants. What this means is this man, when he got home, he got the whole family, all of the servants together, he sat them down and said, I'm going to tell you a story. And by the time I'm done telling you this story, you're going to understand that this is all about Jesus.

And when he was done, they all believed in Jesus together with him. God wanted to do a work in this family, not just in this man. And this man led his family into faith in Christ by telling them the story of what Jesus had done. Also, you might read the story and go, well, he believed his word, and now it says he believed again.

Why is that? This actually teaches us something very important about the nature of faith., if I came to you and said, do that you're on your way to heaven if you died today? Would you say, yes, I know that I'm saved. I know that I'm a Christian.

And if I said why would you say because when I was 8 years old, I believed. Would you say that some people that is their answer. But saving faith is not just a faith that happens at a point in time in the past. It's something you keep on doing.

You keep on doing. In First John 5:13, these things I've written to you, who are continuously believing. That you may know that you have eternal life. And so don't just believe in Jesus once.

Don't just believe in Him today. Believe in him tomorrow. Get up Tuesday morning and believe in him again. And when great things happen and blessings come, believe in Him.

When you find yourself in temptation, believe in Him. When you're going through hardship, and your heart is breaking, believe in Him. May it be that if someone were following behind you and just writing the story of your life, as you go from moment to moment, that, and then someone's reading it later that it just keeps saying, and she believed. And then something else happened in this situation, and she believed.

May, may that line just show up again and again because believing is something you keep on doing. Believing in Jesus. We have so much to learn from this man. John wants us to believe in Jesus.

Sometimes he he inspires us to do that by giving us a vision of Jesus. Sometimes John helps us in believing in Jesus by giving us an example of someone believing in Jesus. And John says, Here's what faith in Jesus looks like in a very practical, real life setting. Here's what faith in Jesus looks like in the heart of a dad, and the heart of a parent.

We have much to learn from this man. Dads, moms, just let me throw this at you real quick. This applies to everyone, but I'm just speaking to parents real quick. The single best gift that you can give to your children.

The best gift that you can give to your children, the best thing you can do for them is for you to believe in Jesus. There's no greater gift that you can give them. You believe in Jesus, and you go to Jesus. And you intercede with him on their behalf, do for your children, inspired by faith in Jesus.

What this man and this story did for his child. Let's pray together. Lord, that We are broken people. Finding wholeness in Jesus, we have so far to go.

You're a good savior. You teach us much. You're a savior whose heart is full of kindness, full of grace. If there's anyone in this room, Lord, whose heart is breaking, because of sin being broken by guilt, Their conscience is stained.

I just pray, God, that they would see the kindness and the love of your heart and that you, you are happy to save, happy to forgive if people would see their sin for what it is, acknowledge their bankruptcy, and just come running to Jesus, like this man did in our story today. You're a good savior. You are delicious. And you belong to those who believe in you.

Do a work of grace in all of our hearts and help us to keep believing. And all things in you. We thank you for this opportunity to give of our offerings to the Lord. To You, Lord, just receive these funds, do much with every penny that is given for the glory of the Lord Jesus.

In whose name we pray, and all God's people said,