Expecting Miracles -- He Sent His Word and Healed the Boy

John 4:46-4:54:
46Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 47When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
48"Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders," Jesus told him, "you will never believe."
49The royal official said, "Sir, come down before my child dies." 50Jesus replied, "You may go. Your son will live." The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, "The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour." 53Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." So he and all his household believed.

54This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.


The nobleman, who was a royal officer, met Jesus. And his life was changed.  That happends when you meet Jesus!

He had heard of Jesus. After Jesus changed water into wine people began to spread the story all over the country. Jesus had power that belonged to God. Jesus had revealed his glory. The disciples had seen it. The word had gone out far and wide that Jesus could do the signs that identified him as God’s Son. The creative power of God is what changed ordinary water into good wine. To meet Jesus therefore is to meet God.

God reveals his love to us in Jesus. This nobleman saw God as far away and silent. But then he met Jesus.. He implored Jesus to come to where his son was and to heal him. Jesus responded with what appear to be surprising words – almost as if he were callused to the man’s pain. He said, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.”

But what was Jesus actually doing here? Jesus was driving the man to trust more simply and strongly in the word that Jesus would speak. The man obviously thought he knew how Jesus would answer his prayer. He would provide some kind of dramatic display of power. He would go to the man’s home and provide the kind of sign that was expected of him. But Jesus deliberately chose not to go to the man’s home, indeed not even to approach it. Instead he spoke. “Go your way; your son lives.”

Jesus stood in the flesh face to face with the nobleman. He spoke. The words he spoke to the nobleman healed the boy who was miles away. Jesus spoke and by that speaking he brought life to a dying boy. Jesus spoke and by that speaking he brought his gracious presence to a home filled with dread. By his almighty word he brought that nobleman to faith. In fact, he brought his whole family to true faith.

Our text tells us that the nobleman believed Jesus’ word when Jesus spoke it. It also tells us that the man believed Jesus’ word when he saw that Jesus had saved his son’s life. It was the same faith. Jesus’ words bring us to faith and keep us in the faith. We have the words of Jesus right here. Believe them. Believe them!

Without his words our faith wouldn’t even exist because it would have nothing to live on. We live on the words of promise. Jesus deals with us through his word. This is why he chose to heal the man’s son as he did. He wanted to teach them and us that he chooses to be present with us through his word. In this way he teaches us not to seek him out anywhere else than in his word.

Most people are very confused about what faith is. They think that faith is a decision that we make. They think that faith is doing something. That’s not true. Faith is the very opposite of doing. Faith is believing. It is trusting. It is hearing what God says to us and relying on the truth of what he says. “Your son lives.” So says Jesus. Faith says “amen” to what Jesus says. It is very simple.

Faith trusts in the word and in this way it trusts in Jesus. You cannot trust in Jesus without trusting in his word. When you trust in his word you are trusting in him. And when you trust in him, you are trusting in God.

The only way to know the Father is through the Son. The only way to know the Son is by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit speaks to us only and always through the word Jesus gave him to speak. This is the word written down in the New Testament, the word that amplifies and explains and fulfills the word in the Old Testament.

It is the word preached from the pulpit of this church. It is the word joined to the water in Holy Baptism. It makes baptism a washing of rebirth that creates and sustains saving faith in our hearts throughout our lives. It is the word that is joined to bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper so that ordinary food becomes the body and the blood of Jesus. It is the word that is spoken in the absolution so that Jesus Christ himself gives here and now today in this place the same forgiveness he won on the cross.

Listen to the word of God as Jesus gives it and learn to love him. You can rely on your own experiences to understand God’s love, but your experiences must align with God’s word to be truth.

Brothers and Sisters, listen to this -- the God who sent his Son into this world continues to talk to us through this same Son. It is as the Epistle to the Hebrews puts it, “God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.” (Hebrews 1:1-2a)

The revealed God speaks to us through Jesus.Jesus Chrsit was crucified, buried, and on the third day rise from the dead. In our baptism we are joined to that holy event. In the Supper, the same body that there bore our sins and the same blood that there was shed for us are given to us to eat and to drink and we hear Jesus’ words that this is his body and his blood given and shed for the forgiveness of sins.

Do you believe him? When he says what he says, do you think it is so? Believe His word. He says his word and when he says it that makes it so. Whether it is the little baby being baptized, the penitent being forgiven, the lost being saved, or the bread and wine being consecrated by the Words of Institution, God’s word always makes it so.

The young man’s fever left him at the very hour Jesus said, “Your son lives.” “So he and all his household believed. This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee” (John 4:53-54).
There is one final stage in this man’s faith. Three different times he believed in Jesus and each time his faith moved to a higher level.

*He believed once when he came to him in Cana—faith in his Miracles.
*He believed again when he left to go home to his son—faith in his Word.
*He believed ultimately when his son was healed—faith in Jesus himself.

And he believed so fully that he swept his whole family and all his servants with him into the kingdom of God. He came and they came with him! Here is an important word for fathers. Let the father believe and the mother will believe too. Let father and mother believe and the children will believe too. Let the family believe and soon the relatives will believe. Thus does God’s grace spread from one person to another.

I should add at this point that not every prayer for help is answered in the same way as this prayer. Not every child is healed in a miraculous way. Oswald Chambers speaks to this point: “Faith for my deliverance is not faith in God. Faith means, whether I am visibly delivered or not, I will stick to my belief that God is love. There are some things only learned in a fiery furnace.” This is a wonderful story with many applications. Let us learn from this that all the roads of human experience lead ultimately to Jesus Christ. When we find him, all will be well.

Behind everything else in this story is the sovereign hand of God. Though the father could not see it in advance, his son was brought to the point of death that the entire family might be brought to eternal life. Thus does God work through our adversity, our pain, our trials, and our sorrows. When we are in the midst of desperate circumstances, we see only our problems and we come as children begging for help: “Lord Jesus, come quickly. We need you. The world is falling apart and only you can help us.” And Jesus quietly says, “Go your way. Be in peace. I will take care of your problems.” Will we have faith to go in peace, trusting him? When we do, we discover that Jesus is as good as his word. And very often we look back much later and say, “I didn’t see it then. In my sorrow and sadness I thought the Lord had forgotten me. I thought my prayers had been ignored. But now I see clearly that the Lord was there all the time. He answered in ways I did not expect. And if it had not been for the Lord, I would not have made it at all.”

Many times we can see that a greater miracle has been wrought than the one we sought in the beginning. And so we learn again that his ways are not our ways. Know this – in time, in God’s perfect timing, all will be made right. He will be vindicated in all things and his Word will be proved true. Our part is to trust him and to obey the light we have. Once we bring our problems to him, we must trust him to do what he knows is best. This is true faith.

God’s word is true. Believe it! This means that here and now at this very hour your many sins are forgiven. God sees the sins you hide from others. He knows that you have lied, stolen, and lusted after what belonged to another. He knows that these sins of thought, word and deed bring you misery, death, and eternal punishment.

He placed all these sins on his dear Son who suffered in your place on the cross. There he removed those sins from you by bearing your punishment fully and finally. Right now he gives you his word that your sins are forgiven. You are free from them. God said it. Believe his word. That settles it. Believe him. He has never lied to you and he never will.

Amen. Amen!