The Missing Faith/The Miracle Of Faith

“Oh Lord, you were the fountain for the Samaritan woman, and you quench the thirst of every single person that comes to you. You are indeed The Fountain-King, Victorious Warrior, Lord of everything. Oh come and quench our thirst this morning Oh Fountain, come and meet every need we have, come and reign supreme oh King Jesus, you Who defeated the devil and destroyed his power and eradicated sin, oh You victorious Warrior, come and win our affections this morning.”

Let’s Turn in our Bibles to John chapter 4. The title of the sermon this morning is:

A Missing Faith, A Desperate Faith, and a Miracle of Faith

As you’re turning in your Bibles, I want to ask us a question this morning: why does the church lack power today? Why doesn’t the church of Jesus Christ see supernatural miracles on a daily basis? Why don’t we seem to have power for witnessing? Why don’t we see unbelievers convicted in their hearts and crying out to God for mercy, wanting to be right with God more than anything else in their lives? Why don’t we see those in bondage to sin, confessing their sin and seeking forgiveness from God, having their chains broken from Him?

Well some today say that the supernatural and the gifts of the Spirit have ceased, are no longer in operation, they came to an end with the completion of our Bibles. “Thanks for your Word, God, but we’ll take it from here.” And yet that viewpoint has been derived largely from experience rather than from the Scriptures. In other words, we don’t see miracles, we don’t see healings and the supernatural so we develop a theology that matches our experience. But the Bible (1 Corinthians 12) lists “gifts of healing” and “miracles” right in the same sentence as helps and administration. And we don’t say that the gift of administration and helps have ceased, why do we say healing and miracles have ceased? Who are we to pick and choose?

No, there is another reason why we don’t see the supernatural occurring today, and I hope by pinpointing the problem we will be able to see the solution, and that God once again might visit His church in power. Once we find out what the problem is, we can turn from it, and God will come, the Holy Spirit will fall on His church in power, and the supernatural will once again become common, and the power of God will once again be displayed in His church.

In the passage of Scripture we have now come to, we remember that Jesus had just spent two days in Samaria where many in that town became believers. Many of these “half-breeds” they were called received God’s grace, and submitted to Jesus as Lord. And now He is leaving Samaria and going again to Galilee. Let’s read together starting at verse 43:

43 After the two days he left for Galilee. 44 (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there. 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. 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. 48 "Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders," Jesus told him, "you will never believe." 49 The royal official said, "Sir, come down before my child dies." 50 Jesus replied, "You may go. Your son will live." The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, "The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour." 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 all his household believed. 54 This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee. John 4:43-54

Jesus was now leaving Samaria, and was returning once again to Galilee, where He was born in Nazareth, and where He had turned the water into wine in Cana. But He did not go to Nazareth, the chief city in Galilee at the time, no He went to a much smaller out-of-the-way town, He went to Cana again. Why didn’t He go to Nazareth where He was born? And what is His draw to Cana? There are literally hundreds of little towns scattered throughout Judea and Galilee, this is the second time He has visited Cana in a short period of time.