What Kind of Person Are You?
The Gospel of John
John 4:39-54
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - August 17, 2016
(Revised July 24, 2019)
BACKGROUND:
*John 4 tells the wonderful story of a Samaritan woman who went to the well one day. And there, by God's grace, she met the Messiah, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This woman went for the water that sustains earthly life, but Jesus was there to give her the water of eternal life. And she believed!
*Believing in Jesus is the only way to everlasting life. That woman believed, and so she was saved! Then she ran off to tell everybody in town what Jesus had done for her. That's where our Scripture picks up tonight, so let's read John 4:39-54. And as we read, please think about the kind of person you are.
MESSAGE:
*What kind of person are you? There are hundreds of ways to answer this question. Some of us are tall. Some of us are short. Some of us are younger. Some of us are not.
*You could say, "I am a father, mother, sister, brother, doctor, lawyer, soldier, farmer, salesman, pilot, teacher, or student." The list goes on and on. There are hundreds of different ways we could describe ourselves.
*But the most crucial way to answer centers on whether or not you are a Christian. Are you saved, or are you lost? Have you received Jesus, or have you rejected the Lord? These answers will determine how we will live on earth, and where we will spend eternity. Tonight's Scripture will help us be the kind of people God wants us to be.
1. FIRST: BE LIKE THE SAMARITANS WHO WERE SAVED.
*Hopefully, all of us here are saved. Hopefully, all of us can say we are Christians. Hopefully, all of us can say we are sure we are going to Heaven, because we have believed in Jesus Christ.
*In that case, we would be like the Samaritans in vs. 39-42:
39. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all that I ever did.''
40. So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
41. And many more believed because of His own word.
42. Then they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.''
*John Phillips explained that this "crowd of Samaritans arrived on the scene, an eager, welcoming throng. They wanted to know more. They asked this strange Jew, who had already showed himself to be so singularly free from racial bias, to come and visit in their town.
*Jesus gladly obliged and remained there two days, breaking who knows how many Jewish traditions by visiting in their homes, eating their food, sleeping in their beds, and teaching them the word of God. Revival broke out, and in vs. 41, 'many more believed because of his own word.'
*Unlike the Jews, the Samaritans asked for no signs. These despised Samaritans received the word with readiness of mind. Their faith came to rest on something more solid than someone else's testimony. In vs. 42, 'they said to the woman: "Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world"'
*It is significant that this great truth about the Lord Jesus, also found also in 1 John 4:14, was first expressed by the hated Samaritans. Jesus had said to the woman at the well, 'Salvation is of the Jews.' These Samaritans said, 'And so it is! We have found not just salvation, but the Savior, and not just the Savior of the Jews, but the Savior of the world.'" (1)
*Hallelujah! Those Samaritan people were saved! They were delivered forever from sin and death!
[1] BUT HOW WERE THEY SAVED. FIRST, IT WAS BY GODLY TESTIMONY.
*In vs. 39, "many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, 'He told me all that I ever did.'''
*And that's not our testimony, but every true Christian has testimonies we can share. Every born-again believer in Jesus Christ has a testimony of how God saved their soul. We also have many other testimonies about how God has blessed our lives. And there is great power in our testimonies.
*God surely used a testimony to help me come to Christ. I grew up attending Presbyterian churches, but I never got saved. Then, when I was about 16, there was a terrible fight in our church. I don't have time to go into the details tonight. But after I saw the terrible way my parents and other good people in that church were treated, it was enough to convince me to be an atheist for 6 years.
*But then God made sure I came out to Louisiana. He used a miracle to get me here. Then He used my wonderful wife to keep me here. I didn't get saved until about six months after we were married.
*Mary and I were invited to the church where I later served in for 21 years. About six weeks after we started going there, we were invited to a young adult choir retreat. And that night we sat around the fireplace while people gave their testimonies. Mary and I were the only people on the back row, because the preacher knew I didn't have a testimony.
*Jimmy Posey was one of the last people to speak. He started to weep over his twin brother, Jerry, who was not saved at the time. (Thank God he later did get saved!) But I could see the great love Jimmy had for his lost brother. I could also see God's love in the rest of those people. For the first time in my life, I could really see it. It was like a light was switched on in my heart. I remember thinking, "This is real! What the Bible says about Jesus is true." I realized that those people had something in their life that I did not have, and I wanted it.
*That night I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Never forget that the story of your Christian life has the power to help someone else get saved.
[2] THESE SAMARITANS WERE SAVED BY GODLY TESTIMONY. AND THEY WERE SAVED BY GOD'S TRUTH.
*Verses 41-42 tell us that:
41. . . Many more believed because of His own word.
42. Then they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.''
*The Samaritans were saved by the words of the one-and-only God-man Jesus Christ. In short, they were saved by the Word of God, and no one has ever been saved except by the Word of God. We know this is a fact, because 1 Peter 1:23-25 tells Christians that we have:
23. . . been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
24. because "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away,
25. but the word of the Lord endures forever.'' Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
*These Samaritans were saved by the Word of God just as surely as we were. And even though this was before the cross, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, their faith was so strong in vs. 42, that they knew Jesus is the Savior, not only of the Jews and the Samaritans, but the Savior of everyone in the whole world who will believe in Him.
2. THANK GOD WE CAN BE LIKE THE SAMARITANS WHO WERE SAVED! DON'T BE LIKE THE HOMETOWN PEOPLE WHO WERE HARDHEARTED.
*Many people today are like the hardhearted people in vs. 43-45. Here God's Word says this about Jesus:
43. Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee.
44. For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
45. 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.
*The idea in these verses is that Jesus went into Galilee, but not into His hometown of Nazareth, because He had been violently rejected by the people there. (2)
*And thank God, many of the Galileans did trust in Jesus! But many other people in Galilee chose to reject the Lord. And one of the worst receptions Jesus ever got was in His home town of Nazareth.
*Luke 4:16-30 tells the story and says:
16. So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
17. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
18. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19. to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.''
20. Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
21. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.''
22. So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, "Is this not Joseph's son?''
23. And He said to them, "You will surely say this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.'''
24. Then He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.
25. But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land;
26. but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
27. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.''
28. Then all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
29. and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.
30. Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.
*Those people thought that they were putting Jesus in danger. But the truth is that they were the ones in great danger. The most dangerous thing anyone can ever do is stubbornly refuse to believe in Jesus Christ.
*When I see Jesus' words in vs. in 44: "A prophet has no honor in his own country," I think of our country. In a certain sense, we are His country today, because the United States was founded mostly by people who believed in God and believed in the Bible.
*As our Declaration of Independence says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Where do we get the rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness? Our founding fathers knew. We get these rights from our Creator!
*In his will, Patrick Henry said, "This is all the inheritance I can give to my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed."
*John Jay, the original Chief-Justice on our Supreme Court said, "Unto Him who is the author and giver of all good, I render sincere and humble thanks for His manifold and unmerited blessings, and especially for our redemption and salvation by his beloved Son -- Blessed be His holy name."
*Francis Scott Key, the author of the "Star Spangled Banner" wrote, "May I always hear that you are following the guidance of that blessed Spirit that will lead you into all truth, leaning on that Almighty arm that has been extended to deliver you, trusting only in the only Savior, and going on in your way to Him rejoicing." (3)
*We could go on all night with quotes like these. America was founded on the Word of God as a Christian nation. But over the last 60 years our nation has dangerously drifted far from her roots.
*And the arrogant people who have stubbornly rejected the Lord have no idea how much danger they are in. They are like a man standing on the railroad tracks, and the train is bearing down on him, but he can't see it, and he can't hear it. All lost people are in that kind of terrible danger.
3. SO, DON'T BE LIKE THE HOMETOWN PEOPLE WHO WERE HARDHEARTED. BE LIKE THE RULER WHO RUSHED TO JESUS.
[1] IN VS. 46-47, THIS FATHER WAS DESPERATE.
*Here God's Word says:
46. 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.
47. 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.
*John Phillips tells us that the original word for "nobleman" there "is 'basilikos' and it literally means 'king's man.' The probability is that this nobleman was an officer of Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee who was popularly known as 'king' and is called 'the king' in Matthew 14:9." (4)
*This nobleman was terribly desperate, because his son was at the point of death. And his desperation drove him to Jesus. Then his desperation drove him to his knees.
*William Barkley described the meeting and said, "This nobleman was a royal official and a man of high standing at the court of Herod. On the other hand, from the world's point of view, Jesus had no greater status than that of the village carpenter of Nazareth. Further, Jesus was in Cana and this man lived in Capernaum, about twenty miles away. That is why he took so long to get back home.
*There could be no more unlikely scene in the world than for an important court official rushing twenty miles to beg a favor from a village carpenter. But first and foremost, this courtier swallowed his pride. He was in desperate need, and nothing could stop him from bringing his need to Jesus. This ruler meeting Jesus would cause a sensation, but he did not care what people thought so long as he got the help he desperately needed. (5)
*What a desperate situation this man was in! His beloved son was at the point of death. We wouldn't wish that kind of trouble on anyone. And John 10:10 tells us that it is our enemy the devil who comes to steal, kill and destroy.
*But it is also true that God sometimes uses desperation to drive people to Him. Look at this father's circumstances. Would he have gone to Jesus otherwise? -- Probably not. And maybe you can think of some times in your life, when God used a desperate situation to drive you to Him.
*If everything always went smoothly, if we were always successful, then we would have a stronger tendency to be proud, to forget God, and think that we don't need God.
*But we do need God! So, sometimes He uses our circumstances to drive us to Him. It's never pleasant to be desperate, but anything that drives us to Jesus is good for us in the long run. And Romans 8:28 tells Christians that "all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."
*If you are desperate tonight, be like this father. Let your desperation drive you to Jesus Christ.
[2] THIS RULER WAS DESPERATE. HE WAS ALSO DETERMINED.
*In vs. 48-49, he was determined to believe in Jesus:
48. Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.''
49. The nobleman said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies!''
*This father was a man of faith! He was determined to trust in Jesus no matter what. And even though he was put off by Jesus, in vs. 49, the nobleman basically said, "I'm not giving up on you, Jesus! You are the only one who can help me!"
*Church: That's the way we need to be! -- Determined to trust in Jesus Christ, even when things don't go our way, even when our progress is delayed, even when we have set-backs. This father was determined to trust in Jesus no matter what.
*He was also determined to take Jesus at His word. That's what we see in vs. 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."
*John Phillips highlighted that in effect Jesus told that man, "'It's not at all necessary for me to come. I don't have to be physically present to heal a sick child at the point of death. I'll stay here and heal him. You go on home. Your son lives. I have commanded death to leave him.' There is a word of assurance in that for us too. The Lord does not have to be physically present to act on our behalf; distance is no obstacle to him." (4)
*Praise the Lord for that! All good things are possible for God! But we miss out on God's greatest blessings if we refuse to trust in His Word. This nobleman and his whole household are in Heaven right now, because he believed God's Word, and then they did too.
*All of the believers in tonight's Scripture are great examples for us. They had a trust relationship with Jesus Christ, where they took Him at His word. They believed what Jesus said about who He is, and who we are.
*But this was still before the cross, and now we can also trust God's Word about what Jesus did on the cross for our sins. We can trust God's Word about the power of His resurrection, about what's best for our lives, about everything. We can and we must be determined to believe in Jesus.
[3] THIS RULER WAS DETERMINED, AND THEN HE WAS DELIGHTED.
*God will give us the same kind of delight we can see in vs. 50-54:
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.
51. And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, "Your son lives!''
52. 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.''
53. 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.
54. This again is the second sign that Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.
*People determined to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will be delighted both in Him and by Him! This is always true, because when you put your trust in Jesus, you are going to hear some good news! Sometimes you will even get to hear miraculous news!
*This doesn't mean that life will always be easy for us. We will still have heartaches and troubles. We won't always get the miracles we pray for, but sometimes we will! Our God is and always has been a miracle working God! So Christians should definitely expect some miracles in our lives.
*And I am sure that God is working miracles today, because people we know have received those miracles. Plus, there are many other testimonies of God working miracles in people's lives. We also know that God still works miracles today, because every time someone gets saved, that is the greatest miracle of all! Miracles of physical healing can only last for a while, but the miracle of salvation lasts forever!
*First the nobleman heard some good news: His son was alive! Then he shared some good news. He told them about Jesus Christ and how the Lord had healed his very ill son.
*Christians: We will always have some good news to share! And even when we are going through the worst of times, we can always be delighted in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
CONCLUSION:
*So, what kind of person are you tonight? Don't be hardhearted toward God. Even if you are desperate tonight, put your trust in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Rush to Jesus, and you too will share in the delight of the Lord.
*Would you please bow for prayer.
(1) Adapted from EXPLORING THE GOSPELS: JOHN by John Phillips, Kregal Publications, Grand Rapids - "The Woman at the Well - John 4:1-42
(2) Sources:
-ALBERT BARNES' NOTES ON THE BIBLE by Albert Barnes - Published in 1847-85 - John 4:43
-BELIEVER'S BIBLE COMMENTARY by William MacDonald - Edited by Arthur Farstad - Thomas Nelson Publishers - Nashville - Copyright 1995 - "The Second Sign: Healing of the Nobleman's Son" - John 4:43-54
(3) From online sermon "One Nation Under God" by Cregg Puckett - Psalm 33:10-12 - Victory Congregational Methodist Church, Florence, MS
(4) Adapted from EXPLORING THE GOSPELS: JOHN by John Phillips, Kregal Publications, Grand Rapids - "The Request from Capernaum" - John 4:46b-54)
(5) Adapted from "Barclay's Daily Bible Study Series - NT" by William Barclay - Revised Edition - Copyright 1975 - First published by the Saint Andrew - Press, Edinburgh, Scotland - The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - "A Courtier's Faith - John 4:46-54
