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Many of you remember what was going on last year in Lakeland, FL. Around this time last year, Todd Bentley began making national headlines for the Lakeland Revival. Reports of 10,000 people per night came to see him and participate in these events. What attracted so many people to his events was the promise of physical healing. Whether you’re talking about Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, Kenneth Copeland, Peter Popoff, Benny Hinn or a whole host of others they all promise the same thing. They promise that if you have enough faith, God is obligated to heal you through them. Of course, to them, having enough faith is often tied to how much money you give them. How completely and totally contrary to Scripture! You don’t have to be a Bible scholar to see what a fake these people are. And not just a fake. By all the standards of Scripture, each of them is considered a false prophet. Each is a false prophet who blasphemously invokes the name of God for their own vile purposes. They invoke the name of God to defraud people and take advantage of them in their weakest times of trouble. And people continue to watch them and support them and send them money. And worse yet, people continue to put their hope in them. But those of us who read and study the Bible should not be fooled, should we? Let me tell you a story about Dr. William Dembski.
Dr. Dembski is a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of our Southern Baptist seminaries. By all accounts, he is a godly man and a wonderful, conservative Christian scholar. His theology is rock solid. Dr. Dembski is married with three children, two of whom are 7-year old twins. One of the twin boys is severely autistic. Many of us here are parents. As a parent, there is no more helpless feeling than when your child is sick. When CJ was in neonatal intensive care for 10 days after he was born, that was a horribly helpless feeling. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to be told that your child has a disease like autism. Or to be told your child is dying. Out of that helplessness, a parent will do anything if there is a chance it will restore their child. That is what Dr. Dembski did. Contrary to his theology. Contrary to his reasoning and logic. Contrary to everything he had taught. He packed up his family, drove 130 miles and went to a Todd Bentley service in Denton, TX, July 3rd, last year. In his mind, he knew that God has the power to heal. He knew that God still will heal. But in his helpless desperation, he reached out to Bentley as the possible avenue of God’s healing. Of course, he was disappointed. As his wife took their 7-year old, severely autistic boy forward for healing, they were turned away after waiting for over an hour. In Dr. Dembski’s words, “Our son was refused prayer twice because he didn’t look the part…. And even those who looked the part seemed to look no better after Bentley’s prayer—the exodus from the arena of people [still] bound in wheelchairs was poignant.” The desperation of a helpless Daddy who knew better, led him to go to a man who plays on people’s desperation to take advantage of them. That speaks volumes for the ones who play on people’s desperation like that. But it also speaks volumes about the lengths a parent will go for their children. We are doers. We like to be able to fix things. And when we are faced with a situation we can’t fix, we feel helpless. And out of our helplessness, we become desperate. And when we become desperate, sometimes we look to things that we know won’t work. But when we are helpless and desperate, sometimes we feel better doing anything than doing nothing. I told that story not to highlight the false prophets. I told that story to highlight the helpless desperation of a daddy who would give anything to see his little boy healed. A daddy who could do absolutely nothing for his boy, but just had to do something.
That describes the man in our passage this morning. Verse 46 describes him as a nobleman. That means that he was a royal official. He was an officer in service to the empire. Since he was from Capernaum and not from Rome, that meant that he was one of Herod Antipas’ officials. Antipas was in charge of Galilee and Perea. And this nobleman was one of his main men. He was important. He was influential. When he spoke, people listened. But I don’t care what kind of power and influence you have in this world, when something happens to your children, you feel helpless. And helplessness wasn’t something this man was used to feeling. If there was a problem, you did whatever it took to get it fixed. Now, there was a problem at home. His son was sick. In this passage, three different original words are translated “son.” Later on in verse 51, when the servants come and give a report, they call him, “pais.” That’s just a plain word for boy that indicates they were familiar to him. It would be like if I looked at you and asked you how your boy is. When Jesus referred to the boy in verse 50, He called him “huios” which means “son”. It is a more proper term. It has more formality and dignity than calling him “boy.” Just like if I asked how your son is, instead of asking how your boy is. But the father didn’t call him either one of those words. The father called him, “paidion.” Paidion is a term of affection. It is a term of endearment. It has the feeling of calling him his “little boy.” Not so much as a reference to his size or age, but as a daughter is “Daddy’s little girl” no matter how old she is. It would be like if I was to tell you how my boy is doing. This man loved his little boy. Not only was the man an important and influential royal official, he was a daddy. And as that daddy knelt by his boy’s bedside, he felt helpless. As the boy’s fever began to spike and he cried out, his daddy couldn’t make it any better. I’m sure that he had mustered all his influence and resources to bring in all the best doctors he could find. I’m sure he had tried every home remedy and potion known to man. Nothing worked. Throughout the entire sickness, nothing worked. The fever only got worse. The agony and sickness only got worse. And the feeling of helplessness only got worse. Just like Dr. Dembski, that nobleman had to do something—even if he knew it wasn’t going to work. He had heard all the reports. He couldn’t help but hear about the man who had been going around healing people and doing miracles. He heard how Jesus raised quite a stir a few months back at a wedding in the area. Nobody had ever heard about Him before, but the rumor was that He took washpots full of water and turned it into fine wine. But then He left the area and headed down to Jerusalem. There were some more reports of all the things He did down there. They said that He healed a bunch of people and performed a lot of signs and wonders. There must be something to it, because they really rolled out the red carpet when He came back to Cana. He left in obscurity, but He was famous when He came back. I’m sure all of those things were going through that daddy’s mind as he helplessly watched his son. And then he had enough. He had to do something, so he headed up the long, steep road that led from his home in Capernaum to where the miracle worker was in Cana. The 16-mile walk up to Cana took a lot longer than it would take to get back because it was uphill the whole way. So going up there would take nearly 7 hours. But if he got on the road when the sun came up, he could be there by noon or one. He could have never imagined what would happen when he got there. Because, when that daddy came to Jesus, he came out of desperation. He didn’t come out of faith or expectation. He came out of desperation. But that’s not how he left there. Because he left there saved. Jesus moved that man from his point of desperation to a point of salvation. Out of the nobleman’s desperation, he came to the healer. But out of Christ’s divine grace, He saved the nobleman and his family. Oh, and by the way, the boy was healed. But the physical healing isn’t really the point, is it? The sickness of his son was what drove the daddy to Jesus in the first place. But Jesus was really almost casual and flippant about the healing. It was almost like the physical healing wasn’t that big of a deal to Him. But God, in His almighty providence, used a daddy’s love for his hopelessly sick little boy to bring salvation to that household. Some might say that it was the nobleman’s faith that caused Jesus to heal the boy. If you read the Text, you know that can’t be true. The healing was by the grace of Christ. There was no faith there. The man didn’t believe in Jesus when he came to Him. He thought Jesus was a human miracle worker, not the Christ, the Son of the living God. We know that because he thought that Jesus had to be physically present with the boy in order to heal him. Verse 47 says that he, “besought Him that He would come down and heal his son.” He thought that Jesus had to pack up and head to Capernaum to do his magic. There was no faith there. And another thing: it says that the man “besought” Jesus. That literally means that the man was pestering Jesus over and over and over again to come right now. It was urgent! His boy was dying and he needed Jesus go get to him and fix him right now before it was too late. So, in the nobleman’s eyes, Jesus’ magic was limited by death. After death happened, it was too late for Jesus. There was no faith there. There was only a daddy’s last ditch desperate attempt to do something—anything.
But Jesus took the opportunity of the desperate unbelief of the nobleman and used it to pour His grace into his life. First, Jesus confronted the unbelief. Look at verse 48:
JOHN 4:48
The way that sentence is constructed paints us a picture of what happened. “Him” is singular, but “ye” is plural. In other words, as they were standing in the middle of this crowd of Galileans, Jesus looked the nobleman square in the eyes and said, “All of you people are just the same. You won’t believe anything until you see a magic trick.” Please don’t be offended when I say “magic trick” like that. But that is the essence of what John means when he uses the words “signs and wonders”. John doesn’t use the word that the other Gospels use for miracles. He talks about signs. Because every time in the Gospel of John that a sign is mentioned, it points out some people’s belief and most people’s unbelief. It points out that people want the tricks that Jesus can do for them without wanting to have Him as their Lord and Master and Savior. Jesus confronted that attitude here in this verse. He said, “You people won’t believe in who I am. All you want is to see signs and wonders.” You want Me to fix your bodies up, but you don’t want Me to fix your heart. You want Me to heal your bodies, but you don’t want Me to change your life. You don’t want Me to sit on the throne of your life. Jesus confronted that attitude. But the man was desperate. His son was dying. So he pleaded with Jesus one more time. And when he did, that was when Jesus turned from confronting unbelief to conquering it. In verses 49-54, Jesus conquered unbelief.
JOHN 4:49-54
Now, when we see what happened, the first thing we want to say it that Jesus healed the boy and now his daddy believed. The daddy got saved because Jesus did a miracle. But that’s not how John wrote it, is it? Because then John would be saying that the nobleman believed in Jesus because Jesus did a really nice magic trick for him. And Jesus had just condemned that kind of thinking back in verse 48. Jesus said that belief in Him because of His miracles isn’t true belief in Him at all. If you only believe in Jesus for the things that He can do for you, you are not really a believer. Jesus confronted the Galileans on that and the Holy Spirit will confront you on that as well. Jesus isn’t your personal stunt master. He is not your personal magic wand. He is God. And as God, He is your Lord and Master. If that’s not the Jesus that you believe in, then your belief is hollow and empty. Just like the Galileans’ was. And just like the nobleman’s was. Until Jesus conquered that unbelief. Not with a miracle. Jesus conquered that desperate daddy’s unbelief with His Word. Jesus could have gone down to Capernaum like the man asked Him to. He could have even healed the boy and immediately transported his daddy to his bedside to watch it happen. He could have opened up a big-screen TV to show him exactly what was happening. But he didn’t. What did Jesus do instead? He said, “I did it, now go away.” At that point, Jesus gave the nobleman a crisis of faith. At that point that daddy had three choices. First, he could have doubted Jesus and stayed. He could have continued to pester Jesus to try and get Him to come down to Capernaum with him. Remember this was a man of action. When he told people to do thing, they did it. So he could have continued to beseech Jesus. Another thing he could have done was that he could have left and verified. Verse 52 tells us that all of this happened at the seventh hour. That was one o’clock in the afternoon. It probably took him about 7 hours to walk there that morning. Remember that he walked it uphill. He could have easily made it back down the hill by bedtime. Remember also that verse 47 tells us that his son was at the point of death. In his desperation, don’t you think that daddy would have gotten back to his bedside as quickly as possible to verify that he had been healed? Or at least if he hadn’t been healed to be with his son as he breathed his last breaths? But he didn’t. Because he chose the third option. He chose to believe and leave. When the nobleman heard the Word of Jesus, his life changed. Jesus spoke and changed that daddy’s heart. Jesus changed it to the point that he quit pestering Jesus. But at the same time, he didn’t run back to Capernaum. He believed that Jesus was who He said He was and had done what He said He did. So, that man who came to Jesus as a last act of desperation, calmly hung around Cana for the rest of the afternoon. And evening. And night. And morning. And then, he calmly headed home—secure in his faith in the Word of Christ. That is belief. Jesus confronted his unbelief and then He conquered it. Not with tricks and stunts. Jesus conquered his unbelief with His Word. He spoke His Word and the nobleman believed. How do we know that he truly believed and was truly saved? Because he went home and testified. He went home and told others. Verse 53 ends with, “and himself believed and his whole house.”
Where are you this morning? Are you pestering Jesus to perform a magic trick for you? Are you desperately seeking a miracle worker to fix the problems in your life? Or are you looking for a Savior? Can Jesus work miracles and heal? Of course He can—He’s God. But if that is all you are seeking Him for, He is telling you just like He told the Galileans—“Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” Instead of trying to find Jesus in His miracles, why don’t you try finding Him in His Word? He will meet you there. That is where He will give you faith. That is where He will give you grace. And that is where He will give you salvation. He did it for the nobleman. He’ll do the same for you.
