John 4:43-54
The Second Sign
Introduction
Why doesn’t God just do something miraculous and prove Himself? Give us a sign!
John’s gospel was written so that people would believe. Believing that Jesus is the only Son of God, and is the only Christ, and is the only way of salvation is the one and only thing John wants us to know. How does he do this in his gospel? By recording 9 signs that Jesus did. Now I’ve been telling you that John 20:31 is the theme verse of this gospel, but verse 30 explains it more. Let me read both verses for you, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”
Now, some of the scholars that I’ve been reading say there are 7 signs in this book. There are 7 signs between chapters 2 and 12, but, there are 2 more signs at the end of the gospel that are unfortunately overlooked. The miraculous catch of fish and the Resurrection! So for our study we are going to credit Jesus with 9 signs in this gospel.
What is a sign? A sign is something that points beyond itself to something else. A sign gets your attention in order to point your attention to something else. John called the miracles that Jesus did signs. They were to get the people’s attention and point to something beyond the miracles.
Today we are going to look at the 2nd sign that John records. So far John has told us that Jesus has done many signs, but, this is only the second one that John has given us the inside scoop on.
Read Passage & Pray
The Reception in Galilee (v. 43-45)
Jesus has spent the last two days in Samaria and they have come to believe in Him as the Savior of the world verse 42 says. It’s interesting that John doesn’t mention Jesus performing any miracles over those two days. It was the power of His word to them that they came to saving faith.
Jesus told Thomas in chapter 20, “Because you have seen me you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.” Thomas saw the miracle of the resurrected Jesus – in the flesh. The Samaritans saw Jesus in the flesh, but, they didn’t see any miracles. In one sense, they had not seen, and yet, they believed. They were blessed, Jesus said.
Keeping with His original plan, Jesus left Samaria, and set out to finish the last leg of His journey to Galilee. Verse 44 seems confusing. Where was Jesus not honored? He came from a place where He was honored (Jerusalem, Judea), He is in a place where He is honored (Samaria), and He is going to a place where He is honored (Galilee).
Verse 45 says that the Galileans had seen all the things Jesus did at the Passover Feast and so they welcomed Him when He arrived. (Remember that all male Jews of age are supposed to make the trip to Jerusalem for 3 annual feasts, which included the Passover. Therefore, many of the Galilean Jews would have seen and heard Jesus while there.) So, where was Jesus not honored?
There are 2 possible explanations. First, the Pharisees, and the Jewish religious leaders back in Jerusalem were not honoring Him and He wanted to leave before they became hostile towards Him before the appointed time. We see this indicated in verse 1 of chapter 4, “When the Lord learned of this [that the Pharisees knew his following was growing], He left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.” Jesus was in Jerusalem, yet, the people who should have welcomed Him, the religious leaders, did not. The Messiah belongs in Jerusalem, and, He was not welcomed there.
The second possibility is that although the people believed in Jesus, it was a shallow faith. It was based on the sensational. He was doing miracles and He was openly criticizing the Jewish leadership which may have earned the public’s admiration.
So He comes into Galilee, and they welcome Him because they have seen all the great things He was doing at the Passover Feast.
The Request of the Royal Official (v. 46-47)
When Jesus gets into Galilee, He heads into Cana. When we were in chapter 2 we read that Cana is the place where Jesus did His first miraculous sign – He turned water into wine. Although Jesus had been performing many signs until this point (2:23; 3:2), this is the second one that John details for us.
John tells us that there was a certain royal official from Capernaum who’s son was sick – to the point of death. And no doubt he had heard the news of Jesus and when he heard that Jesus was in Galilee, he made the 20 mile journey to find Jesus and ask Him to heal his son.
The Greek word for royal official is “basilikos”, which indicated that this man was in service for the king. The king at that time was King Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee.
This royal official had position and money, as he had servants (v. 51), and no doubt access to the best doctors and medicine available at the time. But, his son was still near death, and, the only thing this man had left was to seek out Jesus.
It says that he begged Jesus to come and heal his son. That word for begged is in the imperfect tense in the Greek which means that he was asking Jesus again and again. There is a great humility shown here by this man of position and power.
Salvation requires humility. To be saved requires that a man humbles himself before Jesus Christ. No man will ever see salvation unless he admits he needs the salvation from his sins and trusts Christ as his Savior. But you know what? Salvation also required the humility of God the Son. When He left the glory of the Father in heaven to become a man and take on the nature of a servant – Philippians 2 says that He humbled Himself. He became poor for our sakes so that through His poverty we might become rich! Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8
The Rebuke from Jesus (v. 48)
Jews wanted signs. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:22, “Greeks seek wisdom, and Jews seek for signs.” Fancy philosophies are what Greeks look for, but, the Jews want the spectacular. They want to see miracles. They have always been a people who look for miraculous signs as proof that God is at hand. Turn with me to Exodus 4 please:
In order for Moses to convince the elders of the Israelites that God had sent him, God gave him 3 miraculous signs to perform in order to give them the proof they needed. (But, the miracles were to get their attention so that they would listen to the message Moses had from God and obey that message.)
When God was about to deliver the Israelites from bondage in Egypt He sent them Moses. Moses came with God’s message of deliverance and miracles to validate that message to the Israelites. Now, God has sent His Son to the Israelites to offer them deliverance from their sins, and Jesus Christ came doing miracles. Peter says in Acts 2:22 to the Jews around him, “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.”
The Jews knew that God was with Jesus, Nicodemus admitted that in John 3:2 when he said to Jesus, “We know that you are a teacher who has come from God” OH YEAH, HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT NICK? “For no one could do the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Jews look for signs; they got signs; in the end, the signs did not keep Jesus off the cross.
Why? Because the Jews never looked beyond the signs to hear the message of the One performing the signs. Salvation is by hearing the word of God and by believing it, not by seeing miracles and believing in miracles. Listen this is important. In chapter 17, John records Jesus prayer to the Father, and in verse 8 Jesus says this, “For I gave them the words that you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.” He’s talking about His disciples, not the Jewish nation. His disciples accepted His words as the very words of God.
God the Father entrusted His words to His Son, Jesus Christ. He perfectly and faithfully gave them to the Apostles. The Apostle’s were entrusted then with the very words of God. Do you realize what a severe job it is to handle the words of God? For a man to stand and speak forth the words of God is a serious matter, because to mishandle the words of the Almighty is a terrible crime. That is why James says that not everyone ought to try to be a teacher, they will be judged more strictly. Everything said from my mouth is heard, is weighed, and will be judged. This is a severe vocation.
That’s why Paul says again and again that he has been entrusted with the Gospel. It was given to him not by men, but, by God. He received the Gospel of God from God and is entrusted with it to give it to others EXACTLY as He received it. Listen, there is no stronger condemnation in Scripture than that given to false teachers. The consequences are that many are led into sin from their teachings and many never hear the Gospel and die in their sins, eternally separated from God.
So, this is another verse that seems to be confusing. This man was not asking for a miracle in order to have Jesus prove Himself, he wanted to save his son and he knew Jesus could do it. The important thing to notice here is what compelled this man to seek Jesus was not his desire to be saved from his sins. It was a tragedy. He may never have sought Jesus out if tragedy never came into his life. The man believed in Jesus as a healer, but, not a Savior.
Even though He spoke to this man, Jesus was speaking beyond him to all the Jews – as if treating him as representative of the whole nation. That’s why Jesus says “you people”, He uses the plural form for “you” in the Greek.
But even though this man was seeking Jesus for a miracle, Jesus was going to teach Him how to trust His words. Watch this. The man wanted Jesus to come down to Capernaum to heal his son, but Jesus wasn’t going. He didn’t need to go there to heal him. By healing the boy from a long distance, and not going back with the father to the boy, the father HAD only 2 options:
1) Persist in unbelief, begging Jesus to go with him to see his boy and heal him,
2) Or, take Jesus at His word and go back home believing that Jesus was able to and actually did heal his son.
Relying on Jesus Word (v. 49, 50)
Jesus said, “unless you see…you will never believe.” He would not go down to Capernaum with the man, but He would heal his son. By not going with him Jesus put the man in a position where he had to trust Jesus. Did the official believe would live when Jesus told him so? The boy was not there in front of him so he could not verify at that moment if Jesus really did the miracle or not.
He had 2 options here: 1) He could have acted in unbelief and persisted in asking Jesus to come back with him, or, 2) he could have acted in faith by taking Jesus at His word, and leaving for home to his son whom he believed would live.
Jesus is always masterful in these situations. Sometimes the Lord allows pain, or hardship into people’s lives so that they turn to Him. He brings them into a crisis so they HAVE to trust Him, so that they learn they CAN trust Him. This official believed Jesus was able to save his son from illness. But, he is yet to believe that Jesus can save him from his sins.
Redemption of a Household (v. 51-54)
He left Jesus and headed for home. His servants met him on the way to give him the good news. The first question out of his mouth is “What time did he get better?” They tell him and he realizes that his son was healed at the very moment Jesus told him so. He saw the miracle, and then it says that he and his whole household believed. The father no doubt had heard Jesus preach while he was in Cana; and he certainly had heard about the claims Jesus was making about believing in Him for eternal life. When he realized that the Word of the Lord was true concerning his son, he realized that the Word of the Lord was true concerning his own sin. He believed Jesus was the Savior and he told his household and they all believed too. We see the salvation of a boy from physical death, but, in it, we see the salvation of a household from spiritual death.
Conclusion
I was fishing on Friday up on the White River. There was bridge by where I was at and there were lots of Salmon in there. Occasionally some guys would stop to watch, and then go. Well, there was one guy that came and he was watching, and he was talking to me. And he was talking, and talking. I was focused and so this was really a one-sided conversation. I kept thinking man this guy talks a lot.
The thought crossed my mind to start witnessing to him, but, at that moment I didn’t want to be a fisher of men, I wanted to be a fisher of fish! I was determined to go home with a fish! Finally I looked up at him and asked him what he did for a living and he told me he was a pastor. “Ding!” I realized that he was trying to lead me into a witnessing conversation. He was trying to speak the Word of God to me and I wasn’t listening.
Are you hearing the Word of God spoken to you? If you are, are you listening? This father, this royal official, was so preoccupied with his situation that believing in Jesus was the last thing he cared about. But it was the first thing Jesus cared about. Jesus came to save lost sinners. Don’t close your heart to the salvation He offers.
The Second Sign
Introduction
Why doesn’t God just do something miraculous and prove Himself? Give us a sign!
John’s gospel was written so that people would believe. Believing that Jesus is the only Son of God, and is the only Christ, and is the only way of salvation is the one and only thing John wants us to know. How does he do this in his gospel? By recording 9 signs that Jesus did. Now I’ve been telling you that John 20:31 is the theme verse of this gospel, but verse 30 explains it more. Let me read both verses for you, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”
Now, some of the scholars that I’ve been reading say there are 7 signs in this book. There are 7 signs between chapters 2 and 12, but, there are 2 more signs at the end of the gospel that are unfortunately overlooked. The miraculous catch of fish and the Resurrection! So for our study we are going to credit Jesus with 9 signs in this gospel.
What is a sign? A sign is something that points beyond itself to something else. A sign gets your attention in order to point your attention to something else. John called the miracles that Jesus did signs. They were to get the people’s attention and point to something beyond the miracles.
Today we are going to look at the 2nd sign that John records. So far John has told us that Jesus has done many signs, but, this is only the second one that John has given us the inside scoop on.
Read Passage & Pray
The Reception in Galilee (v. 43-45)
Jesus has spent the last two days in Samaria and they have come to believe in Him as the Savior of the world verse 42 says. It’s interesting that John doesn’t mention Jesus performing any miracles over those two days. It was the power of His word to them that they came to saving faith.
Jesus told Thomas in chapter 20, “Because you have seen me you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.” Thomas saw the miracle of the resurrected Jesus – in the flesh. The Samaritans saw Jesus in the flesh, but, they didn’t see any miracles. In one sense, they had not seen, and yet, they believed. They were blessed, Jesus said.
Keeping with His original plan, Jesus left Samaria, and set out to finish the last leg of His journey to Galilee. Verse 44 seems confusing. Where was Jesus not honored? He came from a place where He was honored (Jerusalem, Judea), He is in a place where He is honored (Samaria), and He is going to a place where He is honored (Galilee).
Verse 45 says that the Galileans had seen all the things Jesus did at the Passover Feast and so they welcomed Him when He arrived. (Remember that all male Jews of age are supposed to make the trip to Jerusalem for 3 annual feasts, which included the Passover. Therefore, many of the Galilean Jews would have seen and heard Jesus while there.) So, where was Jesus not honored?
There are 2 possible explanations. First, the Pharisees, and the Jewish religious leaders back in Jerusalem were not honoring Him and He wanted to leave before they became hostile towards Him before the appointed time. We see this indicated in verse 1 of chapter 4, “When the Lord learned of this [that the Pharisees knew his following was growing], He left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.” Jesus was in Jerusalem, yet, the people who should have welcomed Him, the religious leaders, did not. The Messiah belongs in Jerusalem, and, He was not welcomed there.
The second possibility is that although the people believed in Jesus, it was a shallow faith. It was based on the sensational. He was doing miracles and He was openly criticizing the Jewish leadership which may have earned the public’s admiration.
So He comes into Galilee, and they welcome Him because they have seen all the great things He was doing at the Passover Feast.
The Request of the Royal Official (v. 46-47)
When Jesus gets into Galilee, He heads into Cana. When we were in chapter 2 we read that Cana is the place where Jesus did His first miraculous sign – He turned water into wine. Although Jesus had been performing many signs until this point (2:23; 3:2), this is the second one that John details for us.
John tells us that there was a certain royal official from Capernaum who’s son was sick – to the point of death. And no doubt he had heard the news of Jesus and when he heard that Jesus was in Galilee, he made the 20 mile journey to find Jesus and ask Him to heal his son.
The Greek word for royal official is “basilikos”, which indicated that this man was in service for the king. The king at that time was King Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee.
This royal official had position and money, as he had servants (v. 51), and no doubt access to the best doctors and medicine available at the time. But, his son was still near death, and, the only thing this man had left was to seek out Jesus.
It says that he begged Jesus to come and heal his son. That word for begged is in the imperfect tense in the Greek which means that he was asking Jesus again and again. There is a great humility shown here by this man of position and power.
Salvation requires humility. To be saved requires that a man humbles himself before Jesus Christ. No man will ever see salvation unless he admits he needs the salvation from his sins and trusts Christ as his Savior. But you know what? Salvation also required the humility of God the Son. When He left the glory of the Father in heaven to become a man and take on the nature of a servant – Philippians 2 says that He humbled Himself. He became poor for our sakes so that through His poverty we might become rich! Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8
The Rebuke from Jesus (v. 48)
Jews wanted signs. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:22, “Greeks seek wisdom, and Jews seek for signs.” Fancy philosophies are what Greeks look for, but, the Jews want the spectacular. They want to see miracles. They have always been a people who look for miraculous signs as proof that God is at hand. Turn with me to Exodus 4 please:
In order for Moses to convince the elders of the Israelites that God had sent him, God gave him 3 miraculous signs to perform in order to give them the proof they needed. (But, the miracles were to get their attention so that they would listen to the message Moses had from God and obey that message.)
When God was about to deliver the Israelites from bondage in Egypt He sent them Moses. Moses came with God’s message of deliverance and miracles to validate that message to the Israelites. Now, God has sent His Son to the Israelites to offer them deliverance from their sins, and Jesus Christ came doing miracles. Peter says in Acts 2:22 to the Jews around him, “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.”
The Jews knew that God was with Jesus, Nicodemus admitted that in John 3:2 when he said to Jesus, “We know that you are a teacher who has come from God” OH YEAH, HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT NICK? “For no one could do the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Jews look for signs; they got signs; in the end, the signs did not keep Jesus off the cross.
Why? Because the Jews never looked beyond the signs to hear the message of the One performing the signs. Salvation is by hearing the word of God and by believing it, not by seeing miracles and believing in miracles. Listen this is important. In chapter 17, John records Jesus prayer to the Father, and in verse 8 Jesus says this, “For I gave them the words that you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.” He’s talking about His disciples, not the Jewish nation. His disciples accepted His words as the very words of God.
God the Father entrusted His words to His Son, Jesus Christ. He perfectly and faithfully gave them to the Apostles. The Apostle’s were entrusted then with the very words of God. Do you realize what a severe job it is to handle the words of God? For a man to stand and speak forth the words of God is a serious matter, because to mishandle the words of the Almighty is a terrible crime. That is why James says that not everyone ought to try to be a teacher, they will be judged more strictly. Everything said from my mouth is heard, is weighed, and will be judged. This is a severe vocation.
That’s why Paul says again and again that he has been entrusted with the Gospel. It was given to him not by men, but, by God. He received the Gospel of God from God and is entrusted with it to give it to others EXACTLY as He received it. Listen, there is no stronger condemnation in Scripture than that given to false teachers. The consequences are that many are led into sin from their teachings and many never hear the Gospel and die in their sins, eternally separated from God.
So, this is another verse that seems to be confusing. This man was not asking for a miracle in order to have Jesus prove Himself, he wanted to save his son and he knew Jesus could do it. The important thing to notice here is what compelled this man to seek Jesus was not his desire to be saved from his sins. It was a tragedy. He may never have sought Jesus out if tragedy never came into his life. The man believed in Jesus as a healer, but, not a Savior.
Even though He spoke to this man, Jesus was speaking beyond him to all the Jews – as if treating him as representative of the whole nation. That’s why Jesus says “you people”, He uses the plural form for “you” in the Greek.
But even though this man was seeking Jesus for a miracle, Jesus was going to teach Him how to trust His words. Watch this. The man wanted Jesus to come down to Capernaum to heal his son, but Jesus wasn’t going. He didn’t need to go there to heal him. By healing the boy from a long distance, and not going back with the father to the boy, the father HAD only 2 options:
1) Persist in unbelief, begging Jesus to go with him to see his boy and heal him,
2) Or, take Jesus at His word and go back home believing that Jesus was able to and actually did heal his son.
Relying on Jesus Word (v. 49, 50)
Jesus said, “unless you see…you will never believe.” He would not go down to Capernaum with the man, but He would heal his son. By not going with him Jesus put the man in a position where he had to trust Jesus. Did the official believe would live when Jesus told him so? The boy was not there in front of him so he could not verify at that moment if Jesus really did the miracle or not.
He had 2 options here: 1) He could have acted in unbelief and persisted in asking Jesus to come back with him, or, 2) he could have acted in faith by taking Jesus at His word, and leaving for home to his son whom he believed would live.
Jesus is always masterful in these situations. Sometimes the Lord allows pain, or hardship into people’s lives so that they turn to Him. He brings them into a crisis so they HAVE to trust Him, so that they learn they CAN trust Him. This official believed Jesus was able to save his son from illness. But, he is yet to believe that Jesus can save him from his sins.
Redemption of a Household (v. 51-54)
He left Jesus and headed for home. His servants met him on the way to give him the good news. The first question out of his mouth is “What time did he get better?” They tell him and he realizes that his son was healed at the very moment Jesus told him so. He saw the miracle, and then it says that he and his whole household believed. The father no doubt had heard Jesus preach while he was in Cana; and he certainly had heard about the claims Jesus was making about believing in Him for eternal life. When he realized that the Word of the Lord was true concerning his son, he realized that the Word of the Lord was true concerning his own sin. He believed Jesus was the Savior and he told his household and they all believed too. We see the salvation of a boy from physical death, but, in it, we see the salvation of a household from spiritual death.
Conclusion
I was fishing on Friday up on the White River. There was bridge by where I was at and there were lots of Salmon in there. Occasionally some guys would stop to watch, and then go. Well, there was one guy that came and he was watching, and he was talking to me. And he was talking, and talking. I was focused and so this was really a one-sided conversation. I kept thinking man this guy talks a lot.
The thought crossed my mind to start witnessing to him, but, at that moment I didn’t want to be a fisher of men, I wanted to be a fisher of fish! I was determined to go home with a fish! Finally I looked up at him and asked him what he did for a living and he told me he was a pastor. “Ding!” I realized that he was trying to lead me into a witnessing conversation. He was trying to speak the Word of God to me and I wasn’t listening.
Are you hearing the Word of God spoken to you? If you are, are you listening? This father, this royal official, was so preoccupied with his situation that believing in Jesus was the last thing he cared about. But it was the first thing Jesus cared about. Jesus came to save lost sinners. Don’t close your heart to the salvation He offers.
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