Authentic Faith in Christ
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Being sick-
How I view my sickness
I think I’m pretty tough even when I’m sick...
I just push through it and keep on working.
How Amy views my sickness
i’m the biggest baby in the family
I’m so needy and want to be taken care of.
I ADMIT IT IT -When I’m sick I can be kind of a needy baby
I hate being sick.
But What I hate even more than being sick is when my kids are sick.
I truly hate seeing my kids hurt
all i want to do is heal them
All I want to do is take their pain away no matter the cost to me!
HADDIE AS A Baby story
1 week old, and every time she ate she threw it back up
She lost 34% of her body weight in 3 days.
She was in the hospital for a weak,
This was one of the hardest times I have ever had as a dad.
This child that I loved was close to death, and my heart was aching for God to heal her.
We would hold her and Cry not knowing if we were going to be able to keep her on this earth.
I spent hours on my knees crying out for God to heal her little Body.
God answered our prayers
Transition:
Our story this morning is about a man whose son is very sick and about to die.
and this man is desperately seeking someone to heal and save his son.
I believe that Nothing makes us feel more hopeless than when a loved one is about to die and there is nothing we can do about it ourselves.
Turn with me in your Bibles to John Chapter 4.
We are going to be looking at verses 46-54
Read with me
46 “So he [Jesus] came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill.”
Jesus has Just left Samaria after staying there 2 days.
He stayed with them to preach the gospel of grace to them
and remember the response of the samaritans to the gospel message?
Many Believed in Him.
AQ revival has just taken place in a land that the Jews would have avoided at all cost.
So now we have Jesus and His disciples who are back in Jesus’s homeland of Cana- and I’m sure are still talking about the many people who now believe in jesus as the Savior of the World.
and our story tells us that that there was an official from Capernaum whose son was ill.
We don’t know for certain, but most likely This was a jewish man who was part of king Harod’s court.
And what we know is that he was wealthy enough tho have his own servants
Jesus is back in Cana and this wealthy nobleman come up to Jesus in dee desperation.
47 “When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.”
When this man heard that the Prophet who could heal the sick was back in Galilee, I would believe, that in his desperation, He Ran the 20 miles from Capernaum to meet Jesus and beg him to come back with him and save his son.
All other hope was already gone, all possibilities to save his son had already been exhausted, and so he begged Jesus to come with him and save his son
BEG. Jesus for Healing.... (act it out on knees)
When Haddie wasn't eating as an infant I remember crying out to God to Save her. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for God to save my Child.
and notice Jesus’s Response to this man as he was pleading for a miracle.
48 “So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”
What a strange thing for Jesus to say in this man’s moment of desperation.
But what Jesus is doing is not rebuking this man but instead lamenting over the unbelief of the jewish people as a whole.
Jesus in the original greek text , uses the plural verbs in for “See and Believe”. Meaning he was talking to the crowd of Jews around him who just came to watch the show.
Act out- Jesus looking up from the man and looking at the crowd
Say’ “you don’t truly have faith in me, you just want to be here to watch the show”.
To the Jews, being with Jesus was like going to a magic show, they came to be in awe- they came to be entertained by the miraculous works of Jesus.
We can be guilty of this in our lives as well.
Many times we come to church to watch the show.
Many times we meet with Jesus expecting to be emotional moved
Many times we look for Jesus to do the impossible in out lives but only the way we want it done.
What Jesus is teaching the crowd and what we can learn from this passage is that faith does not require miracles in order to be authentic.
as Jesus addresses the crowd the nobleman again in his desperation cries out for help-
49 “The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
the noble man has 1 thing on his heart and that is for his son to be healed.
he is not interested in Signs or miracles,
He just wants his son healed and believes that jesus is the only possible solution for his desperation.
His urgent cry for help is answered with the masters healing
Look with me at Jesus’s response in verse 50
50a “Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.”
The man wanted jesus to come and touch his son so that the power flowing through Jesus would heal him
But Jesus didn’t need to do it the way the man thought was needed .
Because Jesus is more powerful than all our human limitations.
All this man had to believe in -was the Word of Jesus.
Jesus gave him no signs or miracles that Proved his Power.
The man saw no other evidence there of past lives changed
The only thing that Jesus offered this man was his spoken word.
Unlike the Jews who wanted signs and Miracles in order to believe this mans faith was in the Word of Jesus alone!!!
Jesus said to him “your son is healed go on about your day! : I have healed your son your concerns are over go on about your day!!!!”.
Look at the mans response to the word of Jesus
50b “The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.”
Jesus said to him “your son is healed” and the man believed the Words of Jesus without having to see any physical proof.
Unlike the Jews who wanted signs and Miracles in order to believe this man’s faith was in the Word of Jesus alone!!!
He believed without Seeing.
Remember the rival that had just taken place a couple of days before in Samaria.
4:25 Jesus spoke truth into a woman’s life and she believed because of his words.
in vs 39 it says that The women went back into her town and spoke the truth of Jesus into their lives and many believed because of her testimony.
and then in verse 41 we see that Jesus went and stayed in the town hand many more believed because of HIs Word.
A spiritual revival broke out in that community because of the Word of God.
And Just like the nobleman in our story today- They had faith to believe in Jesus solely based on his word.
Faith is believing without Seeing.
We don’t need signs and miracles to know that God hears our prayers in our times of desperation.
This man had come to Jesus and had already planned out in his mind what Jesus had to do in order to fix his problem,
He believed that if Jesus was going to heal his son, that jesus needed to come to his house.
Remember verse 47 “When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. “
This man in his desperation to save his son, was looking for Jesus for healing.
But in his mind Jesus needed to be in the presence of his son, and that Jesus needed to touch his son, in order for him to be healed and spared from death.
But Jesus shattered this man’s limited belief-
Instead of going with the man- he simply said “Your son will be healed”!
We need to trust jesus in a way that lets Him operate in any way He chooses.
We cannot put God’s workin our lives into a box and expect God to answer our prayers in the way we think is best.
When Trials come into your life and they will, We must trust in God's sovereignly control no matter the outcome.
Your faith needs to be strong enough that you know that whatever happens God has your best interest at heart.
When we pray for our children who are not following Christ Our prayer should “God Redeem my child in any way you choose for your your glory”
When we pray for our marriage that is struggling it should be” God change my marriage in any way you choose for your glory.”
When we pray for healing from the sickness in our own bodies it should be” God use this sickness in me any way you choose for your glory”
When we believe the Words of God in Romans 8:28 that says “God does all things for our good, “
We can find peace in the midst of the storm.
(Big idea :Fruit bearing faith believes God for things we cannot see” - Mike)
The crowd Jesus was addressing in our story needed to see Jesus’s power first before they would believe his word. , they wanted signs and miracles in order to Trust in Jesus,
but authentic faith believes God for things we cannot see.
This man had nothing more than Jesus’s word that His son would be healed to put his faith in.
He was a 4 hour walk away from his son
He had no phone to call home and see if Jesus had told him the truth or was just blowing him off
Remember he came to jesus believing that id Jesus could touch his son he would be healed and now Jesus has asked him to just believe in his word without any evidence of proof.
and the man’s response was simple BELIEf
In fact, He believed in Jesus so deeply that instead of running home to check on his son, he must have spent the night in Cana.
Because of his authentic faith He had peace in Knowing that God was in control
Trans: our 1st point on your outline today is this...
Authentic Faith Brings Gospel Peace
This man didn’t have to wait until he saw the evidence that his son was healed to have peace in his trial.
He simple had faith in the words of Jesus.
When we have trials come into our lives it is our faith in the word of Jesus that can produce the peace to endure the storm.
51 “As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. “
So, now in our story the man is heading home back to Capernaum, and as he is going he look sup and I gotta believe that he sees a couple of his servants running to him with huge smiles on their face.
Why because these are the servants who have been caring for the man’s dying son. and they have great news for their master!
(Act it out as servant …)
Servants - “ master ,you will not believe what happened, your son,, all of the sudden ,woke up and his fever broke and We think that he is going to make a full recovery. You don’t need to get Jesus anymore -Your son is getting better!”
Master - *I am sure that at this moment the man began to grin from ear to ear as he heard their testimony of his sons’ fever breaking away.
in verse 52...
52 “So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour [which is 1:00pm] the fever left him.”
53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.”
The man’s faith was so deep not only did he have peace knowing Jesus was in control but also had an assurance that Jesus would what He said he would do.
Authentic Faith leads to Gospel Assurance
the nobleman didn’t ask Jesus to prove it he just believed.God gave him assurance not in the middle of the storm but after God had already done the work.
We want God to give us assurance in the midst of the storm, but that is not faith.
Faith is trusting in Gods sovereignty in the midst of the storm no matter the outcome.
this man didn’t ask Jesus for proof of his sons healing He just believed in Faith which resulted with peace in his heart-
he believed the words of jesus with out seeing any proof for himself.
The assurance that he received was after the miracle had already happened.
This is how God grows our faith. He puts us in the midst of a trial in the midst of a life changing decision in order for our faith to grow.
He asks us to trust him completely to give him all of our burdens to cast all our cares upon him, and let him take control of the storm in our lives.
ASSURANCE Illustration:
about 13 yrs ago- God started to change my heart towards full time ministry
I thought he wanted me to go int youth ministry
Church in Missouri- it was everything a youth guy could ever want- 120 kids, own building, huge budget and staff.
this was everything I thought I wanted as a youth pastor.— We talked and planned a trip with the church
Amy and I prayed fervently that God would lead us in this decision. ( although I couldn't see how it would be any different that what I had laid out.)
One night - in the middle of the night I woke up and knew God did not want us to go to Missouri to be a youth pastor.
I had a conversation with God about all the things I could do for him with a youth group like that…
in the end...
I woke amy up and said to her I know in my heart that God does not want us to that church .
I don’t know what he wants for me but I know that is not the direction he is leading.
The decision to leave my business of 10 years a business that God had blessed ,was very had for me to make. and this church with its pay, and its ministry budget seemed like it came with a good safety net for me financially.
But I had to trust God to lead me his way not the way that I thought He should do it.
I called the pastor and told them andI can tell you a peace came over me that was awesome.
i was no longer antsy about moving, in fact God put the desire even greater on my heart for ministry.
2weeks later I got a call from Phil Betz at IRBC and asked if I was interested in the program director position at camp.
TO understand the whole story- we need to back up to when Amy and I were dating
She asked me what my dream job would be and I said I loved the camp and would love to be on staff there someday, but with my background I knew that would never be possible.
You see when I gave this decision to the Lord and said it no longer has to be my way god had something so much different in store for , and so much greater.
God gave me the assurance after I had given him the sovereign control over my life and future ministry.
When I yielded my plans to trust him he gave me assurance that he was always in control.
He allowed me to come to camp 11 years ago to minister to not just one youth group of 100 but to thousands of different people each year.
The reason God does it like this to grow our faith,
If I had just gone to the church that I knew was perfect for me, my faith wouldn't be as strong today because I wouldn't have seen the hand of God working in my life the same way.
It’s the same thing when we go through storms and trials in our lives. God uses those times to grow our faith and trust in him.
and when bigger trials come- and they will We can look back at the assurance that God has given us in our times of desperation, an assurance that He is sovereignly in control and that even though this trial may seem unbearable - God is doing it for our Good and this can bring us peace in the midst of the storm.
17 years ago Amy and I saw God do something amazing in our little girls life. He healed her but bigger than that HE grew our faith in the midst of that trial. He answered our prayers, not always the way we thought he should but in the way that was best for us.
5 years Ago Amy and I got a phone call from her dad telling us he had pancreatic cancer. That was a devastating blow to our family.
We began to pray fervently for God to heal him of this disease. but more importantly we prayed that God would give us peace in our hearts knowing that he was doing this for our good. We prayed that he would use this sickness for his glory.
5 months later God in his sovereignty took Lee home to heaven for our good.
From our human perspective it was hard to see how this was for our good.
But because of the assurance of God’s faithfulness that we had already recieved in our life we could know that it was for our good.
Because of Lee’s sickness many people heard about the gospel of jesus
Because of Lee’s death it has caused us to understand the shortness of life and the gospel impact we can have on people while we are still here on this earth.
Our trials- great and small are for our good, God gives them to us as a gift to grow our faith in him,
I’m reminded of the truth we see in James 1:2 “ My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, 1:3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”
Joy is deep sense of happiness and contentment which we can have in the midst of our trials because we have the assurance of God’s faithfulness.
and its through our trials that our faith and dependency on Jesus alone can grow.
The story of the nobleman in John 4 ends in verse 53 and gives us the result of authentic faith.
53b. “And he himself believed, and all his household.”
Authentic Faith Produces Gospel GROWTH
Because of this man’s authentic faith it led others to believe in Jesus
I love hearing the stories of new believers because it is contagious.
When Jay Kvigne accepted Jesus - it resulted in his wife Kim trusting jJesus too.
When Jessica got right with God it led her husband Jeff to accept Jesus too
When we have faith in the midst of storms the world is watching to see what what we will do.
I believe there is no greater gospel testimony than to share your faith in Jesus in the midst of a storm. with people who are without any hope.
The question believers hear so often is how can you have peace when everything around you seems to be falling apart.
AND THE ANSWER IS ONLY JESUS.
Don’t waste the storms in your life on selfish pride, Let God use your trials for his gospel message of Hope.
BRING IT HOME
The main point of this message is this
AUTHENTIC FAITH BELIEVES WHAT GOD SAYS AND ACTS UPON ITS TRUTHS.
The Characters that we have met in our journey through John so far that has believed in Jesus have believed without signs and miracles.
They believed because of the words of jesus and they acted upon those beliefs.
The first three men after meeting Jesus went and found their friends and brought them to Jesus
The Samaritan women after believing what Jesus had said Went and shared his words with the town and many believed and followed Jesus.
and the nobleman from today’s story Believed the words of Jesus without any signs.
We are not called to believe in Jesus because of signs and Miracles -but we are called to believe because its the word of God.
Rm 10:17 “Faith comes by Hearing and hearing by the word of God.”
Faith is believing God’s word as truth, and it is always followed with obedience.
Do you believe the word of God in your life?
I think many times we are quick to say that we have faith but yet we fail to obey the word of God with our actions.
Do you believe that God says sex outside of marriage is sin?
Do you believe that God says give faithfully to the church?
Do you believe that disobeying your parents is sin?
Do you believe that gossip and backbiting should never be part of the church?
Do you believe that God does all things for your good?
Do you believe that the trial you are going through right now is for your good?
This man came to Jesus in desperation- There was no other way fro his son to be saved.
when was thew last time in your life that you were so desperate that the only thing you could do is to beg the Lord for Help.
Whatever you may be going through right now - As you pray about it- Seek God’s will to be done in anyway He choses. and Find your peace in the midst of the storm through the faith in knowing that he hears you and that he loves you, and that he does all things for your good including the trials we all must face.
Don’t put God in a box expecting him to only answer your prayers the way that you see best.
Let him have sovereign control over your storms.