What Will You Trust?
John 4:43-54
Mark Roder had a problem. Squirrels were eating all the bird seed in his bird feeder. Mark is a YouTuber and an engineer. So he built an obstacle course for the squirrels in his backyard and he made a YouTube video about it.
He built many obstacles. One obstacle was a brick wall with some bricks sticking out for the squirrels to stand on. That way they could jump from one protruding brick to another. It didn't take long for the squirrels to figure out how to do this one. They were resting on the protruding bricks and going from one brick to another through the obstacle. They trusted those protruding bricks. But then Mark turned the bricks on. You see, he had connected a motor to the bricks that pulled random bricks in. If a squirrel was standing on the brick he had nowhere to go and he fell to the ground.
When the squirrels realized this, they no longer trusted the protruding bricks. They treated the bricks as hot bricks and quickly jumped from one to the other. Even when the protruding bricks were turned off and no longer moved in, the squirrels still did not trust them. They jumped in a panicky manner, as if they were afraid of the bricks. It was comical to watch. The squirrels did not know what they could trust and what they couldn't trust.
What about us? What can we trust? What should we trust? Today's sermon is entitled, What will you trust? The story in today's passage is about a certain royal official whose son was sick. What would he trust? This story gives four possibilities.
1. Strangers
John 4:43 After the two days he left for Galilee.
John 4:44 (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)
Why is this stated? This verse seems out of place. Did something happen here that we don’t know about?
Is this the time that Jesus was kicked out of His hometown, Nazareth? Is this why this is stated? Or did Jesus go to Cana which probably was near Nazareth, but did not go to Nazareth, His hometown? Is that why this is stated? We don't know. It doesn’t say.
It just states this principle. A prophet, a preacher, has no honor in his own country, in his hometown. People would rather have a stranger preach to them than someone they grew up with. The people of Nazareth refused to trust Jesus because they knew Him. If Jesus had been a stranger, they would have trusted Him.
This principle is true today. I have seen churches bring new staff in from across the country, people they really did not know, and ignore better qualified applicants who lived in their own town, applicants that they knew.
Isn't this strange?
We do the same thing, don't we? Your best friend tells you a certain fact, but you don’t believe him. What do you do? You google it, because everything online is true. You don’t know the people who created those websites with that information, they are strangers, but you trust them.
Or your doctor tells you something, but you don't believe him because someone in an email that was forwarded to you, a stranger, said something different.
There are all kinds of things that we get from strangers. We trust them. But maybe we shouldn't be so trusting.
What will you trust? Strangers? Strangers over the people you know? No? What about miracles?
2. Miracles
John 4:45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.
John 4:46 Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum.
John 4:47 When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
John 4:48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
Here we have started the story. A certain royal official from Capernaum has come to Jesus in Cana, about 35 miles away. His son is sick. He is dying. He begs Jesus to heal him. What does Jesus say? “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe” or trust.
Jesus gives us our second point. Miracles. Some people are looking for miracles. If only they find a miracle, they will trust. Or will they? These verses tell how the people had seen the things that Jesus had done in Jerusalem. Did they trust? Crowds followed Jesus just to see the miracles. Did they trust Him? Where were they at the end of Jesus' life when everyone forsook Him?
When I was a missionary in Russia, 20,000 Russian tracts were donated to us. We stamped our church service times and location on them and distributed them in our residential area. One Wednesday night a man came to our meeting. He told me that he was walking down the street, it was windy, and he saw one of our tracts blowing down the street, against the wind. The wind was blowing this way. The tract was going that way. He told me that it was a miracle. So he came to church. I thought, “Maybe he will get saved and start coming to church because of this miracle.” He didn't. He never came back. He had found a miracle, but even with the miracle he didn't trust.
Some people travel the world looking for miracles. Are you looking for a miracle? Are you saying that if only God would work a miracle, you would trust? Maybe God has already worked miracles and you missed them.
What will you trust? Miracles? No? What about the presence of God?
3. The Presence of God
John 4:49 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
This man wanted Jesus to be present with his child. Surely if Jesus were there, it would solve everything. Jesus would bring God with Him. God would be present. Then he would trust.
Some churches try to create the presence of God in their service. The piano and organ play loudly or maybe softly. The pastor yells or speaks in a soft voice. The people shout and dance or stand reverently. The pastor prays long and lofty prayers. He pleads for God to come. But the truth is that God is already there. God is here. God was with the royal official’s son while his dad was looking for Jesus.
But we don't accept that, do we? We want power. We want a rushing wind. We want to see God. We want tongues of fire. We want to feel the thrill run up our spines. Surely if God came, we would trust.
What will you trust? The presence of God? No? What about the words of Jesus?
4. The Words of Jesus
John 4:50 “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed.
Jesus spoke some words. Go. Your son lives.
Now, I have some corrections to make to the NIV here. First is this phrase, “Your son will live.” That’s what the NIV says. In Greek this is present, not future. Your son lives. Not your son will live.
It then says that the man took Jesus at His word, but the Greek says that the man trusted the word that Jesus said. Jesus spoke a few words. The man trusted those words and departed.
The Greek word for “departed” is the same Greek word as that first word that Jesus said, “go.” This “go” doesn't just mean to go. It means to travel. Jesus told this man to travel, not leave, not go back to your hotel room, no, pack your bags and start traveling. Make that 35 mile trip back to Capernaum. It was a two day trip.
Jesus told this man to travel, he trusted the words of Jesus, and he traveled.
John 4:51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living.
John 4:52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”
John 4:53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.
John 4:54 This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.
The man trusted the words of Jesus and started traveling. The next day halfway there, he met his servants who were coming to tell him that his son was well. He and his whole household, his wife, his sons, his daughters, his parents, his servants, they all believed. They all trusted. Why? Because this man had trusted the words of Jesus.
We have the words of Jesus right here. Are you trusting them? I know everyone says yes and everyone thinks that they are. You probably wishe that the pastor would get over this “trust” thing and move on to something deeper.
If you are trusting, why are you not doing what Jesus said to do? When this man trusted Jesus, he did what Jesus said to do.
Jesus has given us specific instructions of what to do in specific situations. He also has given us some general instructions. I see those situations happen, but the people who say that they are trusting Jesus, they know the words of Jesus, but they do what they want to do. They do not follow the instructions that Jesus said to do. They are not trusting Jesus, even though they say they are.
This same thing happened with Jesus. He told the people over and over again to trust Him. They didn’t. He told them more. They still didn’t trust Him. This is an important element. This is why Jesus mentioned it so often. And that is why I say it so often.
At a previous church that I pastored it was the same thing. I preached about trust often. I had a saying that I must have said every Sunday, “God is a God who can be trusted, and God is a God who wants to be trusted.” Everyone said amen to that. But when a problem rose in the church, they didn’t trust God. What good is it to say amen if you won’t trust when you need to.
Are you trusting the words of Jesus? If so, do them. This man trusted Jesus’ words and He obeyed. He went. His son was healed. He didn’t die.
Don't go trusting strangers. Don't go looking for and trusting miracles. Don't go looking for God's presence and trusting it. Trust the words of Jesus. Open your Bible. Open it everyday. Read it. Learn it. Those facts that you learn about the Bible, do them. Let them change your life. Let them mold you into a new person. Trust the words of Jesus. Trust them everyday.
Conclusion
What will you trust?
Before I went to Russia, I had a good job. I had been working there for four years. One more year and my boss was going to sell the business to me. It was a good business. That business is still in Derby today.
I had bought a house. I was a homeowner for the first time in my life.
I also had started in politics and had run for the Kansas House of Representatives. I ran against the Majority Leader with all his special interest money and came close to beating him. In the next cycle I could have won. I could be a popular politician by now, maybe even retired from that.
But then one Sunday morning God called me to go to Russia. What would I do? Would I trust the good job that I had? Would I trust the home that I owned, I and the bank? Would I trust the political friends that I had made? What would I trust?
You see, there are all kinds of things that we put our trust in. Will we trust them? Or will we trust Jesus' words.
As you know, I ended up selling everything that I had and stepping out by faith, trusting Jesus, trusting God. He provided. He did things for me that He never would have done, if I hadn't trusted Him.
During that time, there were some words of Jesus that I was trusting. They were running through my mind over and over again in the days before we set off for Russia. The words are found in Matthew 16:24-26.
Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Matthew 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Is that true? Is it? Is it true?
Matthew 16:26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
These are the words of Jesus. I relied on these words as I steered my life off into the unknown. Are these words that you would trust? Will you lose your life for Jesus?
What will you trust? A stranger? A miracle? The presence of God? Your job? Your home? Your friends? Or the words of Jesus? Trust the words of Jesus.
