John 4:46-54
The Nobleman
Encountering Christ in the Book of John #5
Introduction
Today we come to the fifth individual that we’re going to be considering in our Encounters with Christ series. I want you to recall that last week as we considered the Samaritan woman, we discovered that worship has to do with real life. It’s not just about what happens in here, inside our house of worship, but it involves everyday, real-life situations, involving real people like you and me. We discovered that worship is not just about singing or praying or coming to church, worship is about honoring God, about recognizing His honor and feeling the worth of it. Worship has to do with preachers, like John the Baptist and Andrew. It has to do with religious people and community leaders, like Nicodemus. It has to do with people who have wrecked their lives through sin and shame, like the woman at the well, and it has to do with strong, powerful men like the one we’re going to consider today. If the Lord’s desire then was to make worshippers out of all these individuals, and His desire today is that you and I become worshippers, something must happen in our lives to awaken that desire in us. That’s where the encounters with Christ come in, and in each of these encounters, there is something more that I want to introduce you to today that has been present in all of these encounters: a crisis of belief.
As I think about it, it seems to me that you can begin in Genesis and work your way through Revelation, and pick out all the men and women whom we admire so much, and you’ll find this one element in every one of their lives – a point of crisis, a time in their lives when their backs were against the wall so to speak, and at that moment, a decision had to be made concerning their faith, and the result of that decision determined whether worship would be involved. I want to explore this thought with you this morning as we consider our nobleman in John 4, and in doing so I want you to realize that each time you encounter the Lord Jesus Christ, He brings you to some crisis point in your life, whether you think it is large or small, significant or not so significant, and He demands that a decision be made as a demonstration of your faith, and I think we’ll find that your decision in those moments of crisis determine whether Christ has been worshipped, or glorified, or honored in your life in that moment. Let’s read our text in John 4:46-54, then we’ll explore these thoughts.
“So Jesus came again into Cana, of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down before my child dieth. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way: thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to improve. And they said unto him, Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth; and he himself believed, and his whole house. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judea into Galilee.”
Now, let’s think about a few things here. What was Jesus after in this man, why do we have the record of their encounter, and what do we need to learn?
The Makings of a Worshipper
We’ve said it already – Jesus was after this man’s worship, He wanted this nobleman, a man who knew well what it meant to be in authority and have recognition to honor Him, to recognize Jesus’ honor and feel the worth of it. He knew that the nobleman would be coming that day, that he would be seeking Him out and knew quite well what his emotional, his mental and his spiritual condition were. What were these conditions? He was emotionally and mentally drained. He was at the end of his rope, and he was spiritually dead. He didn’t have that spiritual well from which to draw strength and hope. He was in great need, and the last thing on his mind was worshipping or honoring someone. He just wanted help for his son. Did Jesus get the worship He was after? Did He create a worshipper in this short encounter? According to the rest of the story the answer is yes. So how did it happen? I want to give you three things that Jesus did to make a worshipper out of this man, three things that occur in your life as well.
He brought the nobleman to a crisis point.
Now, think with me about what has unfolded before us. In just the few short chapters we have studied in John’s gospel, Jesus has made a remarkable circuit from His hometown of Nazareth; through the northern region of Galilee, down to Jerusalem, then back up through Samaria. All the while He was traveling, it appears that He had been performing healings and had begun to teach with such authority that He was drawing quite a following. During the two days Jesus was in Samaria, He ministered to the Samaritan woman and then to the other men and women in the area who came to see and hear Him. He left there and went north to Cana of Galilee, where He had attended the wedding and performed His first miracle just a few weeks earlier.
While He had been traveling to this city, another event was taking place in Capernaum, a more solemn event as a family was attending to their sick son. The Scriptures don’t tell us what was wrong with the boy, just that he was at the point of death. The boy’s father was a nobleman. The word for nobleman 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.” You can imagine with me that this man of power and financial means had done everything he knew to do to get his son medical attention, getting the local doctor to come to their home to try to treat him, and trying whatever other remedies available to him in that day. How could it be that their son, this boy that a mother and father would obviously love immensely now be lying on his deathbed? How would you feel if your son or daughter were in that position? It is a helpless feeling. You want to take that boy into your arms and do something, to make him better, to take his suffering upon yourself just so he can live out his days. Some of you have been in this man’s shoes.
Now, keep in mind that these two events, Jesus traveling and the nobleman’s family situation, are going on in a relatively small geographic area. The distance from Jerusalem to Capernaum is roughly 100 miles, say the distance from Dallas to where we are sitting this morning, and now Jesus is within 30 miles of Capernaum. Remember that Jesus was a big thing in that day. Just before the Passover Jesus had emptied the temple in Jerusalem, then after the feast He stayed in the city performing miracles. News would have traveled fast of this wonder worker, because thousands of people had come to the city to observe the Passover, would have witnessed these things and heard His teachings, then they would have made the trip home, making Jesus the talk of many conversations. By the time Jesus got to Samaria to talk to the woman, news of what He had been doing would have been all over the small country.
So, our nobleman father, in an act of desperation, and out of great love for his son, decides to pull at this last straw of hope and goes to see Jesus. He walks over 20 miles to get to Cana of Galilee from his home in Capernaum, and after he gets there, Jesus arrives with His entourage of disciples, and probably some groupies who just wanted to see what He would do next. Our man is a nobleman; He is a man of power and authority, not used to just sitting around seeing what is going to happen, so he goes immediately to Jesus and asks Him to come right away to his home in Capernaum to heal his son. Jesus responded with an odd remark about faith, obviously irritating the man, because he came back at Jesus with a note of frustration, saying, “Sir, come down ere my child die.” I can imagine the man thinking, “Man, you’re wasting precious time and my boy’s life is on the line.” Jesus simply responded by telling the man to go home. He said, “Your son is alive.”
As the man walked away, I wonder what he must have been thinking. Can you picture him making that long, slow walk home wondering if he had wasted his time? He could have been at home with his son when he died, spending precious moments with him, but instead he had made this long walk to meet this man everyone was talking about only to discover that He was well, odd. He made confusing statements about faith and miracles and such. “What did that have to do with my son? And was He too busy to come with me? Was I not important enough for just a little of His time?” At any rate, when the man’s servants saw him walking up the road, they ran out to him and told him the boy was healed. The man wanted to know when, and after they told him he knew that it had happened just when Jesus said. The man was so moved by what happened that he placed his faith in Christ and was saved, after which he led his entire family to saving faith in Christ.
I think this sort of thing goes on all the time in people’s lives. Jesus works and orchestrates our circumstances to bring us over and over to that crisis point, that point in our lives where we just don’t see a way out. Life’s crises have a funny way of eliminating barriers. They have a way of stripping away things like pride and arrogance and self-sufficiency. Those are the things that keep you from coming to Christ, from admitting that you have a need, but the moment things start happening in your life that you can’t control, all those barriers are stripped away. How did our nobleman, our rich, powerful, important, mighty nobleman come to Christ? On his knees, begging for help! He was accustomed to getting whatever he wanted, but now he is begging, the perfect picture of the only way anyone can get their needs met by Christ. Listen, until you realize that you don’t have anything to offer and that you can’t do a single thing to help yourself, death is all that lies ahead. Don’t you get it? What did Jesus spend His entire ministry telling people?
· Repent
· Deny yourself
· Humble yourself
· Become like little children
I told you last week that the quickest way to the human heart is through a wound. This man’s heart was breaking for his son, and Jesus went straight after his heart. Do you see those crises in your own life? Don’t you see how Jesus is attacking that wounded place in your life so you might be driven to a decision, either to Him or toward your own inadequate self-sufficiency? How many times have you fallen on your face, only to realize that you should have run to Jesus? How many times have you responded to those breaking points and wished you had responded differently? That’s why they’re there – to drive you to the cross.
In the middle of his conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus brought out her adultery. When Nicodemus showed his curiosity about the Lord, Jesus attacked his performance driven religion and his insecurities about being accepted by God. When Andrew began to walk behind Jesus, He asked Him what He wanted. When John the Baptist didn’t want to baptize Jesus, the Lord told him to get on with it, get over his little personal crisis and baptize Him. He strips you of your financial security, your income, your retirement, your savings, whatever, and puts you in a crisis of belief. He rips the carpet out from under your feet in your marriage and wants to know who is first in your life. He takes away the health you cherish and asks you if you trust Him.
So the question then becomes this: Do you? Do you trust Him? Do you believe His words? When the Lord says to you, “Go home, your son lives. Go home, your circumstances are in my hands. Go home, I will meet your needs. Go home, I know what I’m doing.” Will you believe? I tell you our nobleman friend had no reason to believe what Jesus said. He didn’t know Jesus and had never encountered Him before, but what else could he do? All he could do was go home and believe, trust, have faith in this man they called Jesus. That’s all you can do.
He validated His words.
Remember what we’re after here – we’re aiming to see how Jesus made a worshipper out of our nobleman friend. Jesus has brought the man to a crisis point in his life, and the man has done all he can do. He brought his need to Jesus, believed the Lord’s word and then returned home. After he got home, he found out that Jesus had indeed healed his son. He had put his faith in Jesus and Jesus delivered the goods. Jesus validated this man’s faith – so the nobleman’s faith became sight. His hope became reality, and you know the rest of the story.
Does Jesus still do the same? I say yes. But think about what Jesus said to the man and the crowd he was in: “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” In another place, Jesus said, “An adulterous generation seeks after a sign.” Shame on us! What do you mean Brother Kevin? Shame on us? That’s right – shame on us, because you know good and well that we are that adulterous generation, always seeking after a sign. I want you to think about what we’ve made faith all about.
What is your estimation of God based upon? How do you know God loves you? How do you know God is there for you? How do you know God cares about your needs? Do you know those things just because He said so? Do you believe His words like the nobleman did, or do you look for proof of them in your life? There’s nothing wrong with recognizing those things in your life, but to base your estimation of God on those things isn’t just wrong – it is downright sinful.
Listen, suppose that this morning when I got out of bed I thought to myself, “I feel great. I don’t feel 16 any more, but I feel great. I am alive, I am thinking, blinking, and drinking my coffee. Lord, thank you for my health. You are a great and loving God.” What have I done? I have simply thanked God for who He is and what He has done. But suppose I became ill and my health was not so good. Suppose in that moment I began to think, “If God really loved me and cared for me, I wouldn’t be in this condition.” What have I done? I have based my estimation of God upon my circumstances instead of His revealed Word. My Bible tells me that God loves me and cares for me and provides for me and on and on and on. I don’t have to have a bank account full of money to know that God meets my needs. I don’t have to have perfect health to know God loves me. I don’t have to have anything! Why? Because I should believe what He said!
You say, “But Kevin, Jesus validated this man’s faith, why doesn’t He validate ours today?” I want to answer that question with two thoughts. First, He does. Jesus validates His claims to you in more ways than you’ll ever know, but you’re too near sited to see it. Count your blessings, name them one by one, just try it, and I assure you that you’ll have more to name than you’ve got time for. Sometimes though we get to having our pity parties and nobody loves us, we get down in the dumps and depressed and couldn’t see the blessings of God if He were standing in your living room trying to hand them to you personally. So, I don’t really like to depend on having to have our faith validated in that manner, though it really is.
Will Jesus validate it miraculously, like He did in John? Why not just believe what He said? Look with me at John 20. People really haven’t changed through the years. Today’s culture is a touch and feel and see culture. If you don’t feel something, those spiritual fireworks…if you don’t see something – a healing or some other wonderful manifestation…if you don’t see it, then it can’t be of God. That’s blasphemous and it’s downright offensive to God. Real faith in Jesus doesn’t need anything to help you believe, you just believe because of what you know to be true of God. Look at John 20:26.
“And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he unto Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, he Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”
Do you see the point? Jesus has already done everything He’ll ever need to do to validate His claims and substantiate your faith. If you can’t believe Him with all the evidence He’s already provided, another miracle won’t help. Take His word for it – Jesus will meet your need.
He made a believer out of the man.
Here we come to the last of the three things Jesus did to make a worshipper out of our nobleman friend. He brought him to a point of crisis, He validated His words to the man by healing his son, and then He made a believer out of him. Remember that we said the best worshippers are believers. Verse 53 says,
“So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.”
This is an interesting verse, considering the man already believed, he had already exercised faith in Christ, but it wasn’t saving faith. This man demonstrated three kinds of faith that every one of you have this morning, but only one of them will lead to eternal life.
He demonstrated a historical faith. He had heard how Jesus had turned the water into wine. He had heard the reports about Jesus’ miracles in Jerusalem and he had believed the reports. He wouldn’t have walked all the way to Cana had he not had at least what we call a historical faith in Christ. The nobleman had what I believe most people who profess to be Christians have. There are millions of people around the world and in our nation who claim to believe, but what kind of belief is it? Belief that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary? Belief that Jesus lived a sinless life? Or that He was a great man? Is it a belief that Jesus died on the cross to pay for the sins of humanity? That He was buried in a borrowed tomb and was resurrected on the third day? Listen, I had that kind of faith all my life. There’s never been a time in my life that I didn’t believe all that about Jesus, and probably most of you are like that. Jesus has always been God’s only begotten Son, and you’ve always believed all those things. But what’s important is that you can believe all those things and go to hell.
He demonstrated an intellectual faith. He believed in the power of Christ. He consented that Christ could help his son, so he walked to Cana to ask for Jesus to do just that. He believed it strongly enough to ask Jesus to heal him and he genuinely believed that Jesus could do it. Like a historical faith, intellectual faith says that Jesus is omnipotent. He is the all-powerful God who created the heavens and the earth and He can do anything He wants or wills to do. Intellectual faith is what leads lost people to pray and to ask you to pray. They know that God answers prayer. They know that Jesus heals. They know that Jesus meets needs because they have an intellectual faith in the power of Jesus Christ. But again, you can believe all those things and not be saved. Some of you remember a time before you trusted Christ when you used to go to Christ to get your needs met. I remember before I was saved, how I would lay in my bed at night, and try to pray for God to help me, to get me out of some mess, or do something else for me. Hospitals are full of people with intellectual faith, men and women praying for some physical need to be met by a God they don’t know.
Think about how these two kinds of faith led the man. Look at verse 47, “When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee,” he had faith enough to make the trip. He had faith enough to walk up to a complete stranger and ask for help. Then in verse 50 John said, “the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went on his way.” The man had faith enough to believe all those things, but still he was lost. Still he was dead in his sins, but everything that had been happening to him was bringing him to his point of crisis, and indeed had him at that point.
“Please sir, come and heal my son,” he said. “You won’t put your faith in me unless you see signs and wonders,” replied the Lord. “I don’t have time for all this. Come now before my child dies,” says the man. “Go home, your son is alive.” So the man went home, found out that it all happened just like Jesus said, “and he believed.” He demonstrated the third kind of faith, saving faith.
Conclusion
Folk let me tell you something. If you’ve never placed your faith in Christ alone for salvation, you need to know that every day of your life Jesus Christ orchestrates your circumstances to lead you to that same point of crisis. You’ve got to realize that you can’t do anything, you can’t buy your way out, can’t work your way out, or anything else. It doesn’t matter how influential you are, how religious you are, or how demanding you can be. You can either come to the feet of Jesus trusting Him or you can trust in your own ability – but only one will lead to life. This man’s crisis brought him to the realization that he had come to the end of his own resources. It was going to take someone bigger and more powerful than he to meet his needs.
This nobleman was a ruler, but now he was begging. All he could see was a dying son, but his need was met by the Son who would die. Instead of death, he found life, more life than he had bargained for. He walked 20 miles to ask for help, but today your help is only one step away, the step of repentance and faith. Did Jesus succeed in making a worshipper out of him? You can see the answer by what he did after he placed his faith in Christ – he led his entire family to do the same.
I am impressed with this man’s great love for his son, but I am more impressed with our Father’s love for us. Have you ever personally experienced that love in a saving, trusting relationship with Jesus Christ? You’ve got to come to the end of yourself, quit trusting in your own abilities and resources, repent of your sin of unbelief and place your faith in Christ, and He’ll meet you right where you are today.
What is your need today? Salvation? A fresh encounter with Jesus Christ, the living, loving Son of God? He died for you, proved His love for you, wants to fellowship with you, desires worship from you. Will you give it to Him today?
