The Gospel of John 4:31-54

Alright, we are in John chapter 4. We'll be looking at verses 31 through 54, which completes the chapter. Now you recall last week, this is a map you also have on the front page here, and Sychar was the place where Jesus met the woman at the well, and that's in Samaria, as you see, And so we went over that account last week, but it continues in today's passage.

We looked at a few kind of artist representations. One of the things that we pointed out last week is this artist representation of the bare arms, that would have been considered inappropriate clothing in that culture in that time. But that, however, may have fit with the fact that this woman that Jesus met was one of lower repute. And so here would be another artist's representation of that.

The place is what is now called the city of Nablus. The sequence goes like this. There was the city of Shechem, which is the name you find out of, I think that's Genesis 33 and 34. And that was changed during Roman times to Flavius Neapolis, which today has been adapted to Nablus. That's the way Neapolis has been changed. Sychar was actually a nearby town. Askar is the name now.

And it was Mount Gerizim on the left and Mount Ebal on the right. And those are mentioned in the five books of Moses. Now, here's a map of modern Nablus, and here's Mount Gerizim that you saw in the picture, and Ebal over on this side, and the town kind of runs between those two mountains. By the way, this is not a Colorado mountain we're talking about, right? So this is their idea of a mountain.

Right down this corner, at this location here is Canaanite Shechem, Genesis 33 and 34. So that's located there. So it has a long biblical history. We're not done. Here is Joseph's tomb, Joshua 20, 32, right here. Joseph's tomb is actually just blocks away in modern city geography. And then over here is Jacob's well. So right within a very short distance, you have those three biblically significant sites all within blocks of one another. close proximity. John 4 is the only place that's talked about. Jacob's well is not something that's stated out of the Old Testament explicitly, but it is brought up by tradition. It's Jacob's well, not by some Old Testament statement.

Then, here is a black and white photo. What's happened with most of these biblical places, what do they do with biblical places? They build some kind of a building over it. I wish they wouldn't, but that's water under the bridge. The place where Jesus was supposed to be born in Bethlehem, what did they do? They built some church over it, right? And that's what they seem to have done with everything. I would prefer that they have left it alone, but nonetheless, that's the way it was before they built up some modern things.

Well, if you think about it, think about it this way, a lot of the structures that end up getting built were done based on the time of Constantine and the time right thereafter, where they went around and said, okay, here's this site and that one. In some cases, they did a pretty good job of locating it. In some cases, it's sort of tradition and you really wonder. And so it was something that was developed not only by the Catholic Church, but the Orthodox churches also did that. And so it was a pattern that began to take place just within a few centuries of New Testament times. So, but yeah, some of them are Catholic, but not all of them. Okay. Here is a more closeup of Jacob's well color, you know, photo. Now here's a question for you.

In Matthew 15, Jesus says, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And so we find in Matthew 15, Jesus goes up to this area called Syrophoenicia. It's outside of where the Jews were at least prominent and where the Jews had any sort of control. And here in John 4, we see Jesus going into Samaria. Why? Why would Jesus go into areas where the Jews were not prominent if He was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? Why would He bother?

Yes. Look at this map here. You don't have a copy of it in your handout, but this is the layout of where the Jews were originally given to take over the land. Did they go in and take over all the land they were supposed to? No. So what happened is while the Jews failed to take over the land that they were supposed to, and over time even lost some of the land, an example would be Samaria, in terms of their explicit control, what actually ended up happening was you had Jesus going into areas where the Jews had failed to establish or maintain control, and Jesus went into those lands. Why? Why would He go into lands where the Jews didn't have control, even though the Jews did not have established or maintained control? Why would He do that?

Okay, there were some Jews there. Some Jews. They were a minority, or in the case of the Samaritans, it's sort of a questionable thing where they're mixed with some Gentiles. You're right about that. Why else? Okay, he did that. He did that. And why else? Yeah. The land that I will show you, okay? So the land was promised. Why would Jesus go into those areas? And you've given some good reasons. I just think there's another one. About seven years from now, it is possible that the Millennial Kingdom will begin. It will be the year 2020. It could be that soon.

And what will Jesus be? The King of the Jews, Israel. And what did the wise men come to Herod asking? Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? So he is going around to that land, not just to the people, but going around to the land that is rightly his kingdom.

Isn't that interesting? He goes there even though the Jews are either questionable or in a minority or never did have control of the land. He still goes there nonetheless. Isn't that amazing? So he goes into this area that was the area of Ephraim and Manasseh. And that's, by the way, that's the genealogical connection that the Samaritans claimed. He goes into that area, even though the rest of the Jews would not. For a few different reasons, one of those being that's an area that he will rule as king. He never let the failure of the Jews stop him from going into those areas. Okay, so here this account takes us into Cana of Galilee. With that, let's get back to the handout here. So here's John 4, 31 through 33.

Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples were saying to one another, no one brought him anything to eat, did he? Why was Jesus hesitating to eat?

I mean, why didn't he just dig in? Because after all, he'd been walking a while. I suppose we can assume he'd gotten some water to drink after a pretty long walk, most likely. It's early afternoon, seems like a time to eat. Why was he hesitating? Any guesses? No idea? As we look at it here, Jesus often did things that surprised people, right? And this was one of them.

First of all, they were shocked that he was talking to a Samaritan woman who was of he'll repute, you know, in the middle of the day, nothing about that was culturally right, they were just stunned. So that was for starters, but then it's time to eat, he's certainly hungry, but he hesitates. And so they're urging him, eat, you know, I guess they are. Why would he hesitate except for delivering a spiritual message? delivering a spiritual message. It is a set up to talk about spiritual food. Then that spiritual food idea is not one that he had cooked up, it was one that they should have known about. Isaiah 55, 1 and 2 is one that we have here.

Ho everyone who thirsts, come to the waters and you have no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and delight yourself in abundance. So here's out of the Old Testament spiritual food. And by the way, you have no money, come buy and eat. What does that tell us? It's free. It's an amazing thing, even under the law, this verse talks about grace. Do you want any money? Fine, come by and eat. But spiritual food is what it's talking about here. Alright, let's take a look at the top of page 2.

So the disciples' response to Jesus' statement. They're following a pattern that is beginning to get well established in the Gospel of John, and that is they're taking a statement by Jesus, interpreting it in physical terms. We saw that already with Nicodemus.

What does Nicodemus think when Jesus says he must be born again? What's he come up with? I have to go back to my mother's womb. Thinking physically about a spiritual statement, right? Jesus is speaking spiritual. He goes back to interpreting it physically. Here's the woman at the well. Jesus talks about living water, and what does she think? Physically, right? So here's the disciples, and Jesus talks about, I have food you don't even know about, and what do they think? physically.

The pattern is getting well established here. These people are very superficial and earthly in their thinking. Jesus' repeated attempts to communicate with these people about spiritual things just bounces off. They don't soak it up. Okay, here's John 4, 34 through 38.

Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there are yet four months, and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal, so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true, one sows and another reaps.

I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor. So, Jesus uses his hunger, and even hesitates deliberately at this point, even though there's food in front of him, in order to send them a spiritual message. They don't readily grasp it, but that's what he's doing. The food that Jesus is talking about in this case is from a spiritual harvest that is just about to take place.

What does white unto harvest mean? There's a couple of different things that's real interesting. One is when the grain is ready to be harvested, there's kind of a whitish hue that comes upon the grain as opposed to earlier in the season when it's just green and growing and that sort of thing. One other thing, what was the typical color of the clothing of the Samaritans? white. And so guess what?

They're all coming towards and they're wearing white. So he's using kind of a double figure here for the harvest. So he's trying to get them prepared. Look, guys, you have an opportunity here. These Samaritans are coming out. I know you despise them, but they're coming out here and you have a tremendous opportunity right in front of you. See, they are walking right now towards us. Don't miss it because you're eating. Don't miss the opportunity because you're chowing down. That's what he's trying to get them to see here. It will produce a spiritual food, so to speak. This is the outcome, this harvest picture. So it's John 4, 39 through 42.

From that city, many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified, he told me all the things that I have done. So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking him to stay with them and he stayed there two days. many more believe because of his word and they were saying to the woman it is no longer because of what you said that we believe for we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is indeed the savior of the world and by the way that phrase the savior of the world this is a unique place in scripture where that's laid out isn't it interesting here are these Samaritans the ones the Jews thought were just disgusting And they're believing, they're responding, and they uniquely declare Him the Savior of the world. And let's get one more thing. Is He just the Savior of the Jews, or just the Savior of the Samaritans? The Savior of the whole world. Isn't it interesting to have that? And fairly early in the Gospel of John, these Samaritans are getting it. Isn't that astounding? They get it. They understand a lot.

Now think of it, what did Nicodemus call Jesus? He introduced, you know, initially, what's that? A rabbi or teacher, right? He calls him a teacher, and not the teacher by the way, that's what Jesus called Nicodemus, a teacher. And what did the woman at the well call Jesus?

I see that you are a prophet, right? And why? It's because Jesus had told her, yeah, you've had five husbands, and the one you're with now isn't your husband, right? And she said, oh, I perceive that you're a prophet. So Jesus had been recognized as a teacher by Nicodemus, a prophet by the woman at the well, but when these people finally come out and talk to Jesus, they say He's the Savior of the whole world, and not just the people here, and not just you know, the Samaritans and not just the Jews. He's the savior of the whole world. Now these guys are getting it big time. Much better, much better than either Nicodemus or the initial introduction of the woman at the well.

Let's look at that table that's down below. Contrast between Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman. And I have a very, very tiny print the place where I got this little table, but I've said adapted from because I've changed several things. At any rate, so the sex of the gender, male and female, comparing Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman. Race, pure Jewish versus mixed Gentile and Jewish. Social status, here's Nicodemus, highly respected. The Samaritan woman, not so much. The place, Jewish territory. Here, Samaritan territory, which ought to have been Jewish.

Nicodemus meets with Jesus at night. Here, quite the opposite. The Samaritan woman meets with Jesus out at the well at noontime. The condition, Nicodemus meets in the dark. The Samaritan woman in broad daylight. Isn't that interesting? The respectful and respectable man comes and meets with Jesus at night. Here is the one not so respected, meets with Jesus in broad daylight. And by the way, who initiated the meeting at night? Nicodemus. Who initiated the meeting here in the broad daylight?

Jesus did. Isn't it interesting? Jesus actually intentionally pursued meeting with her. Darkness and light would be another contrast here. The setting is indoors most likely with Nicodemus meeting. But this one was outdoors. Here's Jesus out in broad daylight meeting with this woman of lower repute.

The occasion was planned, apparently spontaneous, although I would say planned by Christ, in the case of the woman at the well. The new birth is the subject of Jesus' meeting, and the living water is the subject of Jesus' meeting with the woman at the well. So interesting.

And by the way, are those the same thing? Isn't it interesting that both of them, Nicodemus and the woman at the well, first took the statement, birth and living water, as a physical thing. And in both cases, Jesus actually intended a spiritual statement with each one. Is that what you're getting at? In other words, Jesus' statement in each case was a spiritual statement. They took it physically.

The initiator was Nicodemus, and the Samaritan woman is actually Jesus. The conversation seemed to fade out with Nicodemus. He went back to talk to those that he represented, remember, as we went through it. that that was actually Nicodemus speaking for an unknown group of others.

Yeah? Isn't part of that because it's been so long since they actually had a prophet? Was it like 450 years or something like that? Yeah, you think about it, the end of the line of prophets was with Malachi, right? And it had been over four centuries. Over four centuries. So here's the end of the line of prophets, and then after all that time, here is a prophet. Here's a prophet.

Get your attention, right? Now think about it, from Nicodemus, who represented a few who were recognizing, hey, Jesus is doing some extraordinary works here. What group was Nicodemus representing? It's some out of the Sanhedrin, and the only names that we have out of that group are who? Nicodemus, okay, the ones who believe, the ones who apparently believe or at least show an interest in Christ. So we have Nicodemus and And Joseph of Arimathea, those are the only two that we have names for. There may have been others, but the indication was, you know, they believed secretly, and this was one of those, you know, be careful how you say it, because you might get into trouble. Yeah?

Do you think that Paul's teacher was Gamaliel? Gamaliel? Yeah. There's no indication that Gamaliel was a believer in Christ at all. He did have a significant following, and as a matter of fact, the rabbis recorded things about him. He had about a thousand disciples. He was, if married, married later. He was asked, why aren't you married? Because it was the custom for Pharisees to be married. And he says, I'm in love with the law. But there's no indication that he actually ended up believing in Christ.

Good point though. Now here, so you have a secret belief of a few, with Nicodemus and those he represented. And like I said, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea are the only names we have. There may have been others unnamed. But they were probably a minority and it had to be secret. But here with the Samaritan woman, open belief of many. Fields are white under harvest. Open belief of many. You are the Savior of the world, openly declared right in broad daylight, right in front of everybody.

Limited witness to others, it was the outcome from Nicodemus, you must be born again. And so in a few quiet meetings, he said, he said that we have to be born again. Oh, what does that mean? Right? And now in contrast to that, welcomed witness to others. So Jesus was trying to get the disciples to understand, look at the opportunity that you have right in front of you. It's right there. You have this huge spiritual opportunity. Do you see it? Lift up your eyes away from your food and quit your chomping for a minute. Right? Okay. So let's take a look. We're at the top of page three here.

So here is one, Nicodemus, highly respected, as Jesus calls him, the teacher of Israel, and at best he can talk to a very few about it in secret. Highly respected, but quiet witness. Here, in great contrast, is the woman at the well, hardly respected at all. openly telling people, hey, this guy told me my whole history.

Can he be the Christ? And then they go out and find out, yeah, he is. He's the Savior of the whole world. One of the things we pointed out last week that made the difference, the Jews were looking for a Messiah who would come raining, you know, and boot out the Romans and would be sitting on the throne of David, right? That was the Jews' perception of the Messiah. What did we say was the Samaritans' perception of the Messiah?

How is it different? Pardon? As a teacher and explainer of things, a revealer of things. That's how the Samaritans saw it differently. And so, the Jews, when they would see Jesus, they say, wait a minute, you're not booting out the Romans, you're not coming in here and taking control, you must not be the Messiah. But the Samaritans, expecting a teaching and revealing and explaining Messiah, found exactly what they were looking for. And so they openly received Him as that. You're the Savior of the world, not just us, not just the Jews, the whole world. They saw it, the Jews didn't, in great part. Okay, so now things turn a corner here.

John 4, 43-45, after two days he went forth from there into Galilee, for Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they themselves also went to the feast. Does verse 44, where Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country, does that seem to contradict verse 45, where the Galileans received him?

Yeah, Tom? You would suspect that Galilee was not? Not as well as under the third of the hierarchy in Jerusalem. Okay. And you're right about that. They had a different mindset than those who were around Jerusalem. Yes, Dan? I think it goes back to what you said earlier about physical and spiritual. There's physical belief and spiritual belief. Ah, yes.

Very important distinction. Look at verse 45. Why did the Galileans receive Jesus upon His return to Galilee? Because of what He did and what they saw. Hey, this guy does cool stuff. I mean, this is a magic show. Right? This guy does cool things and we really like it. And we especially like the free food. And I mean, that's always great, you know, and here without an appointment, he'll do healings. I mean, this is pretty extraordinary, right?

So, now, one of the things that we'll be taking a look at in some months ahead, we're going to be beginning in April a study of the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 11. gives the kind of listing of what's sometimes called, and I think appropriately so, the Great Hall of Faith that is going through and listing from Old Testament saints down into the prophets what a number of them went through. And many of them not seeing the fulfillment of what they wrote about and spoke of. And many of them, and even as Hebrews chapter 11 describes, many of them received great difficulty and harsh treatment as a result of their faithful speaking and living out of the gospel of that time. Take for example, here's Isaiah, author of this great book Very well received. Sixty-six chapters, just like the number of books in the Bible. A fantastic book. So what became of Isaiah?

He was sawn in two. And that's what you see described in Hebrews chapter 11. Here's Jeremiah. Here's Jeremiah speaking the Lord's Word, and as a reward for being obedient and saying exactly what the Lord told him to say, he gets lowered down in a muddy well. Into a bunch of sucking mud in the dark, wet, sloppy, muddy. This kind of treatment is what came about for the prophets. And that's what Jesus is summarizing. A prophet has no honor in his own country. And here's Jesus going back to Galilee.

And notice that there is at this point, some reception, we're going to see that that's going to turn a corner. There is some reception based on you did a real nice magic show for us. We really like the free food. And it sure is nice to get a doctor's visit without an appointment. And we don't even have to pay for that.

So this is great. At the end of that paragraph, a time came when even with signs there would be those who did not believe. John 12, 37. That was a really nice magic show, but I'm not buying it. That was really nice for you to give us all the free food. But what have you done for me lately? Or, you know, it's been really great, but things are getting a little hot around here in Jerusalem. And so it's time for me to say goodbye. So here's John 4, 46 through 48.

Therefore he came again to Cana of Galilee where he made the water wine. This is what we saw in the first 12 verses of John chapter 2. And there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him and was imploring him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe. So this is the second time that John records that Jesus had been in Galilee, in Cana. Cana was also recorded as the hometown of Nathaniel, One of the things we find is that the name Cana is only recorded in the Gospel of John. There's no other mention of it in any of the other Gospels or books or anything of the sort.

Have any idea why that would be? Why only John recording this name Cana and several times and none of the others? Yeah, it's just a little village for one thing. And so John's recording of it wasn't because the village was naturally significant, but because it had significance that John took note of.

First of all, this is the place where Jesus turned the water into wine. This was a place he returned to a second time. And there's also the hometown of Nathanael. And only John records that, interestingly enough, there are a number of things that he records that are unique, and this is one of them. Cana, this little village, otherwise insignificant. He just said, well, you know, what, who, where?

What does that place have to do with anything? It kind of reminds one of, you know, can anything good come from Nazareth? I went to high school in this little town called Boonville, and I remember them over the hill on the county seat of Ukiah, you know, they introduced me, oh, this guy's from Boonville. And they would even say, can anything good come out of Boonville? Anyway, so I know the feeling. All right. So here's the second time it's recorded.

There's this royal official, sometimes called a nobleman, from Capernaum. Now Capernaum was right at the top north end of the Sea of Galilee. It was the place where Jesus called his headquarters. It was a place where Peter moved to. He wasn't originally from there. Peter moved to and archaeologists have found a place that appears to be the actual Peter's house.

So this is Capernaum. we're not told is this a Jewish man who is an official or is it a Gentile man who is a nobleman of some kind. Just to the east of Capernaum was a place where the Gentiles had their headquarters in Capernaum and that may have been where he was from. We aren't told.

So Jesus is approached by this fellow. He begs him to come and heal his son. So Jesus did it right away? Or what? What happened? What does Jesus do right off when the guy makes a request? Come heal my son. Talks to him a little bit. Yeah? And He did that, you're right, but did He do that initially? He didn't do it initially, what did He say first?

You guys have to see signs and wonders or you won't believe. So this fits with what Jesus is recognizing, that a prophet doesn't receive honor in his own country, And in fact, the Galileans only received Him because He'd done some things that they were impressed with. And now Jesus is pointing out the underlying attitude that, by and large, everybody in this area, they want a magic show, they want the free food, they want something that's going to impress them, and that's what they're looking for. And so He points that out. He points that out. It's not apparent from what the man asked, but that's the summary of the reception there in Galilee. Yes? Yes. some connection there. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's explore something a little bit. Mary obviously recognized who Jesus was. She had been told before he was born, here's who this Jesus is that you're to bear.

What was the reception among Jesus' brothers and sisters at this time? Were they real gung-ho about this Jesus? Yeah, yeah, I'm sure there's all sorts of things, you know, Mary and Joseph saying things like, you know, how come you're not like your brother, you know? They weren't believing at this point in time. And so that would be one difficulty is while Jesus and the disciples would go various places, all the brothers and assumed also the sisters, were not exactly the PR campaigners. So you got folks back home who were kind of bad-mouthing you. So that was a bit of a drag.

So let's take a look at the top of page 4, where we have John 4, 49-54. So the royal official said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies. Because after my child dies, it's hopeless, there's nothing you can do, it's too late. Now, down, why down?

Because here's Capernaum right at the edge of the Sea of Galilee, roughly 700 feet below sea level. And here's Cana, which is up in the hills up a little bit. So it would in fact be down. So this royal official, this nobleman, had in fact traveled uphill as a generalization to get to Cana. And so he'd come down here, come down to Capernaum so that my child, can be healed.

And do it before he dies. I know it's inconvenient, it wasn't what you had in mind, but please. So Jesus says, okay, I'll go. Is that what he says? No. Jesus said to him, go, your son lives. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off. As he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living. So he inquired of them the hour when he had begun to get better.

Then they said to him, yesterday at the seventh hour, that would be what time? One o'clock. Zero hour is six in Jewish counting. And then nine o'clock, third hour, sixth hour would be noon. So seventh hour, about one o'clock. They must have had one of those sundials you carry on your wrist or something. Anyway. So the father knew that it was at that hour at which Jesus said to him, your son lives.

And he himself believed in his whole household. This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when he had come out of Judea into Galilee. Okay, what was the first one? What was the first sign? First miracle was turning the water to wine. Turning the water to wine, right? So, turning the water to wine would have been the first. This was now the second. And both of them, at least in some way, related to Cana. Interesting. This little village. Insignificant village. The insignificant village of great significance. So, this royal official asked Jesus to come down to Capernaum to heal his son before he died. By the way, what does that tell you about what the man believes Jesus is capable of?

Well, he walked more than a mile. Okay, he walked certainly more than a mile uphill even. I don't think it was both ways, but anyway, yeah. He walked more than a mile uphill. What else does this tell you about what this guy thinks Jesus is capable of?

Healing, okay? He believes Jesus is capable of healing, and even repeatedly requests that Jesus come heal. Now, he does ask Jesus to come down to Capernaum, so there's a limitation in that, at least at this point, he's thinking, well, Jesus has to come close to my son to heal him, so that's one.

And then before he dies. So what does that tell you about what the man thinks? You have to do it before he dies, because after that it's too late. Do we have evidence that that's not too late for Jesus? Lazarus. And that will be in the Gospel of John too. So what we have is this man has two limitations to his belief. He does believe that Jesus can heal, but his limitations are two. One, he has to come down to Capernaum to do it. And secondly, you've got to get there before he dies. So those two limitations to belief. And what we find is, in this case, it's evident, no, I don't have to go there.

And what we see later in this Gospel of John is, even if the son died, that's not the end. That's not the end. So the royal official asked Jesus to come down to Capernaum to heal his son before he died. Jesus, rather than going with the royal official back to Capernaum to heal the official's son, simply told the official, and I'm giving a more literal translation here, be going, the son of yours is living.

Why did Jesus tell him to go? Was that rude? Was that, you know, controlling? Why did he tell him to go? I think he sensed in that nobleman's heart, at least in some fundamental way, he esteemed Jesus to be greater in more than just a healer's way. Okay, alright. Stan? I think it's kind of like, go see. Go see. In other words, go is not just get out of here. It's not just get out of here. Where is He going to go? Is He going to take a walk to Jerusalem? Or is He going to go to the coast? Yeah, it's go back and be with your Son and do what? Yeah, He lives. The Son. That's what Jesus said. The Son lives. The Son lives.

Go verify it. Go enjoy it. Go believing. So the go is not a rude thing. It's not a get out of here. The go is actually something hopeful. You can go. You don't need to keep requesting of me. You can go and you can go back and as fast as you can walk, You'll be there, and you can enjoy your son who lives. So this isn't rudeness, and it's not, get out of my sight. I think it kind of goes down to the fact that Jesus was with Jews and not necessarily with Gentiles. So, He's not going to have this guy as one of His disciples or one of His followers anyway. He's just giving this man a miracle. How cool is that?

Now, something else, when the man got there, what happened? As a matter of fact, even before he got there, what happened? He came and told him his son was alive. Yeah, so here's this guy going to this little podunk town called Cana to find Jesus, knowing that that's where he'd gone. The servants come back and meet him part way with the news, your son's alive.

When did he get better? Well, he got better about this time. Ah, that was the time when Jesus said, go, your son lives. And I'm sure he went back excited. Yes, here he is. And having news from the servants is great. But going back and actually seeing him alive, that's even better.

Right? Yeah. It wasn't the impression of the Gentiles, particularly the Roman army, that they didn't like the Jews, that they had a lot of, well not hatred, but they looked down upon them. So for this man to actually go to a Jew who wasn't that distinctive according to Isaiah, and had a lot of bad reputation, and a lot of marks against him, this was a, I think was a huge step this time. It really does show his faith. Yeah, it's interesting.

We make note in the notes here, in Matthew chapter 8, there is a somewhat similar account of a centurion who meets Jesus at the west entry to the town of Capernaum and says, you don't even need to come to my household, but you can do the healing from right here, I believe it. So here's a similar circumstance. but a guy who does believe that Jesus can heal him from a distance. So that's a similar account there in Matthew chapter 8. In that case, Jesus marveled at the man's faith and healed without coming to the house. And by the way, the centurion had the legal right to force Jesus to come to his house. But he said, I won't take advantage of that legal right. I will just ask you to heal him from here. knowing that you would have some objections as a Jew. And besides that, I don't want to bother you. Yes? It's almost like an SS officer going to the Jewish meeting. Yeah, wouldn't that be something? Yes. We have a section here. We probably won't get time for it, but I would encourage you to take a look at it.

On the last half of page 4 and on page 5, Believing and Receiving in the Gospel of John. John, it's evident from what John describes there, John 20, 30 and 31 says this, Therefore many signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these have been written, in other words these various things, I could write a whole bunch of things, but these right here have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, that is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. What you have here is not exhaustive, but it is sufficient and it is written that you might believe. That's the purpose, that you might believe.

But one of the things that becomes apparent as we go through the Gospel of John is that all believing is not the same. All believing is not the same. There are those who apparently believe or receive And Jesus doesn't trust Himself to those who do that. What's the problem? What's the problem when Jesus won't entrust Himself to them, or when someone supposedly believes or receives and then turns away?

What's going on there? Their heart's not changed. Why? You're right, but why is the heart unchanged? Is it possible to have an insincere belief? To believe, but not have it affect you? And how can that happen? How can it be that you can believe, but you're not saved? Alright, I think it is, but I think we need to get to the heart of what is that? I think you're correct, but what's going on there that a person can believe and not be saved?

Part of it is, what do you believe? I believe that you can turn this stuff into bread and fish and all that, and boy, it's really cool. And I sure like, especially out in this remote place, to get fed like that. I believe that you can heal this guy. Yeah, what do you believe? So part of it is the content, what do you believe? And we will sometimes say, you know, believing unto salvation, or believing so that Christ is your Savior. It's possible that you believe something else about Christ, or believe Christ for other reasons.

It's possible to have a belief that doesn't save, and as Stan put it, the heart's not changed. Why isn't the heart changed? Who changes hearts, by the way? Yeah, it is God's doing that hearts are changed. It's God's doing that hearts are changed, and He does it on the basis of belief, but it is a good question.

What are you believing about Jesus? What are you believing about Jesus? Yes. Yeah, you know, I believe you can, you know, do this. I believe you can do that. Yeah, by the way, here's Nicodemus. He comes to Jesus. Has he come to the right guy? Yeah, he's come to the right guy. And what does he call Jesus? Is that enough? At that point in time, is Nicodemus saved? He's come to the right guy. He calls him a teacher. And yet the first thing out of Jesus' mouth, you must be born again. You may be born again by everybody else's measure, but you've got a heart change that has to take place. You must be born again.

And unless that happens, it doesn't matter what everybody else thinks. It doesn't matter how highly regarded you are, you haven't got what it takes. He has knowledge, but no application. Yeah, he has knowledge, but no application. He has huge understanding, but not of what matters.

Yes? I like that story where the guy did the wheelbarrow at Niagara Falls, and when he got to the other side, he asked somebody, he said, do you think I can do it again? Yeah. And the guy said, sure. He said, get in the wheelbarrow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Get in. Yeah.

And so it is very possible for people to give various kinds of assent to Jesus. Oh, I believe you can do this, I believe you can do that. Boy, what you do is immensely impressive. Nicodemus even acknowledged, boy, you do phenomenal things. Jesus said, that's not enough. It is possible to believe, but not believe unto salvation. And by the way, James says, who believes? The demons. The demons believe. It is possible to believe and not be saved because that belief has to focus on who Jesus is, not just some mythology about Jesus. I believe that Jesus is a really nice guy. I believe that Jesus can do miracles. That's not good enough. Not good enough. It's possible for people to go fairly far down the track and have even other people convinced. And yet, nope, you didn't believe him about who he is and what he's done.

My younger brother had a small Bible church over in Northern California, and there was a lady who came to the church where he was at, and she became a believer. But what she had to tell him was interesting. She had previously been at a church where they had all sorts of charismatic things going on, but she had not been a believer. Oh, she did all the speaking in tongues and all the other stuff, but she wasn't a believer in Christ.

She wasn't saved. So, did she believe? Yeah. Was it belief unto salvation? No. She could go through all the motions, and externally, it looked like, oh yeah, she's a Christian, but no, she wasn't saved. Not until she heard the gospel and believed it. Which, by the way, she'd never heard before.

Let's pray. We're about out of time here. Lord, thank you. As we look at this passage, boy, it really puts the finger on some critical things. We thank you for the insights that we have from it. We thank you that, as we've been seeing in the main service, that we can behold you, the living word, through your written word. And we thank you for that tremendous and valuable, eternally significant insight. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.