This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day 5 of our look through John chapter 4 in Daily Drive Time
Devotions. We're going to be looking at the healing of the nobleman's son in
verses 43 to 54 today, following up on the long story of the conversation of
Jesus and the woman at the well. After two days, it says in verse 43, here's
what happened next, he left for Galilee.

Now, Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own
country. And when he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They'd all
seen what he'd done in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, for they also had been
there.

Jesus is moving, you need to see the pattern here, Jesus is moving north, away
from Judea, from Jerusalem, to delay this honor of the crowds. Now, there's a
couple of ways to look at this. The honor that was gained when he went to
Jerusalem, Jesus didn't want to be noticed for some reason, that's for some
reason he had a different plan about who he was going to preach to at that time.

But the other way to look at this is also God's timing in his life. He needed to
move towards the north because there was a timing for him to go to the cross.
And if he stayed in Jerusalem where all the centers of power were, they'd get
very quickly upset at him, and they'd want to put him on a cross earlier than he
knew it was time for him to be on a cross.

So Jesus knew God's timing, and he moves to the north, to Galilee. This is the
beginning of his great Galilean ministry, about 16 months. And John, as he talks
about this, focuses on a couple of events in this ministry.

The feeding of the 5,000, and also this healing of the nobleman's son. Listen to
what happened in verse 46. Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he turned
the water into wine.

And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When
this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and
he begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. So here's this
royal official.

Who was he? He was most likely a servant of Herod the King. The idea, the word
here is basilicos pertaining to the king, and Herod was the only king at that
time.

He was a very high and honored man. And he comes to ask Jesus for help. He's
there because he has a sick child.

And all of us can relate to the helpless feeling of not knowing how to cure a
sick child. So he comes and he requests that Jesus come. He begged him to come
and heal his son.

The tense of the verb that's used here is that he requested, he begged
repeatedly. Here's the king's man, a man of power and prestige and riches. No
one could help him.

Power could not demand a healing. Prestige could not influence a healing. Money
couldn't buy a healing.

It's amazing, by the way, what money can't buy. Money can buy a house but not a
home. It can buy books but not brains.

It can buy companionship but not friendship. Money can buy the wood for a cross.
It can't buy a savior.

And this man recognized that. And so he comes and he humbles himself. And he
requests for Jesus to come.

And listen to Jesus' answer. It is surprising to many people when they first
hear Jesus' answer, verses 48 and 49. Jesus answers, "Unless you people see
miraculous signs and wonders, you will never believe.

" The royal official said, "Sir, come down before my child dies. " You hear that
answer. Did Jesus' words sound blunt, uncaring?

Why does he answer this way? The man comes and says, "I have a sick child. " And
Jesus says, "Unless you see miraculous signs, you're never going to believe.

" Why would Jesus answer like that? We know he cared. We know that Jesus has
compassion.

Jesus answers this way because he has a deeper concern than the life of this
child. You see, Jesus knows what we don't know. Jesus knew that the child would
be spared.

Nothing's impossible for God. He knew the problem was already solved. He knew
what he was going to do.

And so his concern was not for a problem that was already solved. His concern,
as he looked into the eyes of that crowd, as he looked into the eyes of that
man, his concern was for their faith. He knew that that was where the greatest
danger, the greatest crisis was in this story.

These words that he speaks in seeming rebuke to this man are plural. He's
talking to the whole crowd and not just that man. And you can almost feel the
crowd when this man comes and says, "Would you heal my child?

" Their spiritual enthusiasm starts to rise. They want another spiritual fix to
keep on their messianic high. "Wow, he's really the one.

" And Jesus looks around and says, "Signs and wonders are not what it's all
about. " If you're just here to see that, you're going to miss faith. Jesus'
rebuke here is towards the seeing is believing philosophy of the world.

I just want to see some more so I can believe some more. Jesus knows the danger
of that for our spiritual life, our spiritual growth. The truth is, the truth is
believing is seeing.

The truth is when I believe, when I trust in God, that's when I see him at work
in my life. And so Jesus here is talking to people who want to develop a signs
and wonders faith, focused on the spectacular miracles that Jesus was working.
And he says to them, "There's danger here.

" Then he turns back to the man, this man and his family that we're going to see
in verse 53 when we get there at the end of the story. I want to let you in on
the end of the story now. They're going to believe.

They're going to have faith in Jesus Christ. I want to walk through how they get
there because it's an object lesson in how we develop faith. Faith both for the
first time, if you've never put faith in Jesus Christ, or faith as we grow in
faith.

Let's walk back from verse 53 to see how their faith has developed. Number one,
it starts with a crisis. Their child is sick.

And for many of us, it's any port in a storm. I'm looking for any hope. In a
crisis, we're just looking for someone.

The Jewish Messiah or a Roman doctor or a Greek philosopher. It might not have
mattered to this man in that moment. He just needed help.

And Jesus looked like the most likely one to help. It starts with a crisis. But
then something happens.

Second thing. The second part of the development of faith is he comes to Jesus.
He came because he believed that Jesus could work a miracle.

He believed that Jesus could meet his felt need. This man came to talk to Jesus
about a need that he had in his life. And then Jesus began to talk to him about
the deepest need that he had in his life.

What's the use of healing the son if your family doesn't believe? What's the use
of a life in this world if you're not looking forward to an eternal life? He
comes to Jesus.

It started with a crisis. And then he did the right thing. He came to Jesus.

And that's where most of us start. Truth of the matter is, most of us start
exactly where he did. We come to Jesus not because we love him or because we
want to praise him.

Not at the beginning. We come to Jesus not because we want to express love to
him or praise to him. Not at the beginning.

We come because we need him. And that may sound selfish. But for most of us, in
the beginning, that is the level of our faith.

There is a need in our lives. And we come to Jesus Christ. You can't stay just
at the level of this need.

But the right decision is to come to Jesus Christ. Faith in what Jesus Christ
could do is what started this man on the journey. And his faith begins to grow
when he moves from demanding to depending.

Instead of coming to Jesus and saying, "I order you to do this," he says, "I
need you. " And then something amazing happens. You really begin to see the
seeds of faith in this man's life in verse 50.

Let me read it for you. Jesus replying to the man, "You may go, your son will
live. " The man took Jesus at his word and he departed.

Now, let me ask you, would you have done this? I mean, doesn't it sound a little
bit here like just getting rid of this man? Jesus is saying, "Oh, go, he'll be
healed.

" But this man trusted. He took Jesus at his word. You see, instead of just
doing what this man asked, Jesus puts the man in a position where he must do
what Jesus asks.

You see what happens? Jesus doesn't just say, "Okay, he's healed. " No, Jesus
says, "You may go, your son will live.

" This man has to take a step of faith, and he does. He took Jesus at his word
and he departed. Many times we come to Jesus Christ and we tell him what he must
do.

Now, you may not put it in those words, but you do, and I do. Jesus, you've got
to do this. You've got to do this.

You've got to do this because I'm feeling this. And then he doesn't do it. It
doesn't work out like I wanted it to work out.

What do you do in those moments? You take him at his word. This man listened to
what Jesus said instead of just listening to what he wanted.

And because of that, he heard what Jesus said and he took him at his word. This
official is faced with life's greatest decision. Jesus makes a promise and he's
forced to decide, "Am I going to believe or not?

" And he takes Jesus at his word. The question for me, the question for you is
this. At what point in your life have you taken God at his word and acted?

Because until you do, if you want to develop faith, until you take God at his
word and act on that, you're never going to discover how trustworthy he is. You
can question it in your mind the rest of your life. This man could have stood
there with Jesus and argued all day long.

It wasn't until he had the faith to act, to take Jesus at his word, that he
discovered that Jesus could be trusted. In fact, that's the fourth part of the
development of faith here. He saw that Jesus could be trusted.

In verses 51 to 52, while he was still on the way, his servants met him with the
news that this boy was living. When he inquired as to what time the boy got
better, they said to him, "The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour. "
This was a long distance healing.

Distance is no problem to God when it comes to doing a miracle. It's God. He can
do anything.

That means that God can heal in your bedroom or your living room or hospital
room or in a church. He can heal anywhere. So proximity with this or that or
another thing has nothing to do with the power of God to work.

In fact, you could pray for healing right now in your life. Now, you may wonder,
why doesn't God always heal as we read through these verses? And we're going to
come across several healings in the book of John and answer that question as we
walk through this book because it's a very important question in life.

The truth is God always cares. And the truth is in this world, we do live in an
evil world. We're not in heaven yet.

And God doesn't always heal. As we walk through the Gospel of John, we're going
to see some of the ways of God, how he works in our lives. But let's continue to
focus in on this man and what he's doing.

What happens in this story is this man discovers that he is trustworthy. You
don't have to be healed to discover that. You discover that Jesus is trustworthy
because he died on a cross to give you forgiveness.

That's the clearest, clearest expression of his trustworthiness. Well, the
second clearest. The clearest expression is he said he would die and be raised
in the third day.

And he was. Jesus is trustworthy. And because this man discovers that Jesus is
trustworthy, he takes another step of faith.

He believes. Listen to verses 53 to 54. Then the father realized that this was
the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live.

" And so he and all his household believed. This was the second miraculous sign
that Jesus performed having come from Judea to Galilee. The second miracle in
Cana.

Jesus has a deep desire to move us from a faith that's based on signs and
wonders and things that we can see on the outside to a faith that's based on
experience of his faithfulness. And that's exactly what happened to this man. He
believed.

His whole family believed. He moved from faith in the power of Jesus, yes, you
can do something, to faith in the promise of Jesus, I will act, I will trust
you, I'll take you at your word, to faith in the person of Jesus, a relationship
with Jesus Christ. He moved from coming to God with his problems and trusting
God for a solution to trusting God with his life.

And that's the kind of result that Jesus was looking for. Not just some
temporary fix, but faith, faith that lasts. As we pray today, let's pray for
faith.

Say to Jesus Christ, "Jesus, develop my faith. " As I pray this prayer, I pray
it knowing that you develop our faith sometimes through difficult times, through
struggles. But God, I know that the struggles that you allow in my life, that
you don't take any joy in the struggle, but you do take joy in the fact you can
develop faith even through those.

And so develop my faith through even the problems. Develop my faith through the
relationships. Develop my faith through my daily talks with you and time in your
word.

Jesus Christ, I need you and so I come to you and I ask you to help me to take
you at your word, to act upon your word, and to believe in you. I ask it in
Jesus' name, amen. Well join us next week.

We're going to be looking at the next chapter of the book of John, John chapter
5.