‘OFFICIAL’ FAITH
John 4:43-54
1) Official faith pursues (vs. 43-47). Vs 45 “The Galileans welcomed him”. The reason they welcomed him was because they wanted to see Jesus perform more of the miracles they had seen in Jerusalem. Soren Kierkegaard, the famous Christian existentialist philosopher, said, “There exists a paradox between reason and faith. Reason can bring us to the edge of faith--but ultimately, religion defies human logic and requires that we take a ‘leap of faith’ as we commit ourselves to Christ. Signs and wonders appeal to our reasoning. But belief is not a product of reason--it is a product of faith”. Vs. 46 “royal official”. He was probably an officer in King Herod’s service who was overseeing that area of Galilee in some capacity. Vs. 47-“he went to him”. This nobleman walked some 20 miles from his home in Capernaum to Cana where Jesus was. Sometimes we think things should come easy for us; we think that when we pray God should just instantaneously give it to us. Sometimes he does but there are other times when we need to put forth some effort. When God moves us to be an active participant in the answering of prayer it will be an opportunity to see how serious we are; to determine how important it is to us. God already knows but we need to know. This is for our benefit. If everything is just handed to us we don’t develop gratitude; instead we become spoiled and expectant. We see that his trouble led him to seek out Jesus. It can be that way with us. So often it’s when hardship comes upon us that we seek Jesus. There was a purpose for God allowing this official’s son to fall this ill-it led the official to seek Jesus. So it is with us. When God allows hardship to fall upon us it’s always for the purpose of us seeking him. Vs. 47-‘he begged him to come’. As an officer, he would have had authority over Jesus, but here we see this authoritative figure humbly coming to the “commoner” Jesus seeking his help. His humility showed his recognition that he couldn’t fix this himself and it showed that he thought Jesus could. Normally, this official could’ve ordered anyone under him to do anything he wanted. He probably had all the best doctors attending his son without remedy. He was now faced with a situation where he couldn’t order anything to be done. He was faced with a situation where the solution was outside of his control. No matter who he went to and no matter what he tried his son was not getting better. He was put in a humbling situation. He was being humbled to go to someone who technically would be “under” him; not to give an order but to make a plea. We need that same humility. We think we can fix things ourselves and we’re wrong. God will allow us to be in situations where the solution will be outside of our control; where nothing nor no one will be able to fix it; so that we would be humble and seek Jesus. Official faith pursues Jesus.
2) Official faith is persistent (vs. 48-49). Here we see Jesus putting off the man’s request. Whether Jesus is addressing the man along with the crowd I don’t know. Whatever the case, he’s rebuking them for their lack of official faith. “Your faith is based in seeing a miracle, and if you didn’t see miracles you wouldn’t believe.” In any event, this rebuke is a test for the official. How would he react to this statement? He could’ve taken Jesus’ response as a rejection and decided to walk away. Or he could’ve had the opposite reaction and demanded Jesus to do it. “I’m an official; I order you to do this.” It wouldn’t have worked if he had. Kind of like the time when Christian Herter, governor of Massachusetts, was running for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes and getting no lunch, he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late in the afternoon and Herter was famished. As he moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line. “Excuse me,” Governor Herter said, “do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?” “Sorry,” the woman told him. “I’m supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person.” “But I’m starving,” the governor said. “Sorry,” the woman said again. “Only one to a customer.” Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around. “Do you know who I am?” he said. “I am the governor of this state.” “Do you know who I am?” the woman said. “I’m the lady in charge of the chicken; keep it moving.” If we were honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that sometimes, as foolish as it is, we try to make demands of God. We try to give God ultimatums or we try to make deals with him. Instead, we need to be more like the official, who did none of those things. Instead, what we see him doing is making another plea (49). He wasn’t being demanding; just persistent. We see that he wasn’t going to be deterred. He came a long way to see Jesus and he wasn’t about to let a non-favorable first response dissuade him from his objective. What about us? Are we persistent in our prayers? Until we get a ‘no’ from God we need to persevere in our requests, not in selfish obsession but in passionate persistence.
3) Official faith is rewarded (vs. 50). And Jesus responded favorably to his persistence (50a). Matt. 15:23-28. In this case Jesus was basically denying her request. But even in this she would not be dissuaded. And Jesus granted her request, citing her great faith. This is an example for us. When God “delays” answering our prayers, Satan will try to get us to doubt God’s love and power. Let us not give in to that but be persistent and trust God. Vs. 50b-“The man took Jesus at his word”. He wanted Jesus to come down with him and heal his son but Jesus didn’t do that. Instead he spoke the miracle. This probably upset the crowd who were hoping to be able to see Jesus perform another miracle. But here we see the man being tested again. Instead of believing by seeing he was forced to rely on Jesus’ word. This would put him in an uncomfortable position. “Should I insist he come or should I just take him at his word?” We see him do the latter. He departs, believing Jesus will come through on his word. What about us? Just like last week with the Samaritans, do we take Jesus at his word or do we want something more “tangible”. What kind of faith do we have? What level of faith do we have? Is our faith as such that we want a sign from God in order to believe? Do we want things to be a certain way before we are willing to obey God? That’s not official faith. Official faith says, “I don’t have to wait until I have more money before I am willing to tithe.” Official faith says, “I don’t have to wait until I have everything figured out before I will obey God.” Is our faith like the official’s who took Jesus at his word and walked away without seeing the miracle? Do we exhibit the words of 2nd Cor. 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” Charles Spurgeon once said, "I would recommend you either believe God up to the hilt, or else not believe at all. Believe this book of God, every letter of it, or else reject it. There is no logical standing place between the two. Be satisfied with nothing less than a faith that swims in the deeps of divine revelation; a faith that paddles about the edge of the water is poor faith at best. It is little better than a dry-land faith, and is not good for much.” There’s a quote that goes, “Faith is not a sense, nor sight, nor reason, but taking God at his word”. Official faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible. Official faith gets rewarded.
4) Official faith changes us (vs. 51-54). Why was this event necessary? To remove any temptation to determine this miracle to be a natural event. Instead of wondering if Jesus healed him or the boy just naturally became well, since Jesus didn’t actually place his hands on the boy, there was this occurrence of exact time. The official could’ve still been tempted to rule it as a coincidence but his faith overruled any skepticism and this confirmation caused he, and his whole family, to become true believers. Perhaps the convicting words of Jesus earlier came to his mind, “Unless you see signs and miracles you do not believe.” He decided that his faith would not just be in the miracle, but in the one behind the miracle. Official faith doesn’t just believe in Jesus’ ability to heal but it also believes everything else about Jesus too. Notice that the official could’ve just accepted the miracle and continued with his life as is. But he responded to the miracle by believing in Jesus. We too, once Jesus answers our prayer and he does a miracle in our lives we determine how we will respond. Luke 17:11-18. Jesus healed all ten but only one came back to show his appreciation. Only one took the miracle seriously enough for it to really change his attitude. Jesus said it was his faith that made him well. He had already been cleansed; he had already received the miracle but he responded properly to the miracle. The miracle caused a deeper change; it produced official faith. When Jesus does a miracle in our lives, how will we respond? Notice the progression of the official’s faith. In the beginning he had the faith to seek Jesus’ help but he believed Jesus could heal only his son if he was physically present to do so. And he didn’t think Jesus could raise him from the dead, just heal him or else he wouldn’t have been urgent with Jesus about coming to his son before he died. Then, his faith grew as he took Jesus at his word, yet he still needed to be fully convinced in the immediate power of Jesus’ word because he asked his servants at what time the boy was healed. Then, you see the official’s faith come to its fullness. So it could be with us. We have a faith that grows and strengthens into fullness. An official faith is a faith that grows and growing faith is faith that is rewarded with blessings. Augustine said, “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.” The official took Jesus at his word, he saw what he believed and it changed him.
Official faith pursues, it runs after Jesus. Official faith persists, it doesn't give up. Ofifcial faith is rewarded, it doesn't mean we always get what we want but it is blessed. And official faith will change us, we will not remain the same. Is your faith superficial or is it official?
