(2) God Said It Series

Introduction

I want to begin today with a simple refrain you may have heard before:

God said it.

I believe it.

And that settles it for me.

That little line may sound like something out of a gospel chorus, but it’s actually the heartbeat of the second sign in John’s Gospel. We’re in John chapter 4, where a desperate father walks twenty miles on nothing more than a word from Jesus. And by the time he gets home, he finds that God’s Word has no limitations.

Today we’re going to walk that road with him, and along the way we’ll discover what John wants us to see: the Word made flesh has the same authority as the Word that spoke creation into being. His Word is not bound by time or place. His Word still creates and re-creates. His Word still brings life out of death.

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God Said It

It all begins in Genesis: “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3). That phrase repeats like a drumbeat: “And God said… and it was so.” Creation itself is a sermon about God’s Word. He speaks, and reality bends. He speaks, and nothing becomes something. He speaks, and chaos is turned into order.

The psalmist understood this when he wrote: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.” (Psalm 33:6). It’s no accident. It’s no accident that John begins his Gospel the same way Genesis begins: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:1–3).

John wants us to recognize that Jesus is not just a good teacher or a compassionate healer. He is the eternal Word made flesh, the same voice that once thundered across the void and called the universe into existence.

And in Cana of Galilee, that same voice is about to speak again. Not to make a world, but to save a child. Not to hang stars in the heavens, but to bring hope into a desperate home.

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A Desperate Journey

The story begins with a man in crisis. John calls him a basilikos — a royal official. This is a man tied to Herod’s court, a man with connections, wealth, and status. But none of that matters when his son is burning with fever and slipping toward death.

When your child is sick, titles don’t matter. When the doctor shakes his head, when the fever won’t break, when death hovers over the crib — money and power can’t save you.

So this royal official hears about Jesus. Word has spread — stories of a wedding where water turned to wine, whispers from Jerusalem about miracles. He’s desperate enough to try anything. He leaves Capernaum, at the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, and walks twenty miles uphill to Cana. Can you picture it? A nobleman in fine robes, dust covering his sandals, sweat running down his face, hope hanging by a thread.

And when he finds Jesus, he begs: “Sir, come down before my child dies!”

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Jesus’ Surprising Response

Now here’s the shock. Instead of rushing with him, Jesus seems to rebuke him: “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe.” (John 4:48).

It sounds almost cruel, doesn’t it? But Jesus is pressing this man toward a deeper kind of faith. Faith that doesn’t depend on what the eye can see, but on what the ear has heard. Faith that doesn’t say, “Come down and show me,” but faith that says, “If You say it, I believe it.”

And then comes the turning point. Jesus speaks a sentence that echoes creation: “Go. Your son lives.”

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The Word That Sends

The Greek verb is p??e??? (poreuou). It’s not an aorist command — “Go, do it once.” It’s the present imperative: “Go on your way. Keep going. Start walking and don’t stop.”

Do you hear the nuance? Jesus is saying, “Turn your feet toward home and keep them moving. Every step you take will be a step of trust in the Word I’ve spoken to you.”

That’s faith. Not faith that stands still waiting for proof, but faith that walks on the Word. Faith that puts one dusty foot in front of the other even when the outcome is twenty miles away.

Romans 10:17 comes alive here: “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” The man hasn’t seen anything. He hasn’t witnessed a miracle. He hasn’t heard a servant’s report. All he has is a Word: “Your son lives.” And verse 50 says: “The man took Jesus at his word and departed.”

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Walking by Faith