John 4:43-54 (Sermon Outline)
Sermon Outline
In Search of Jesus
John 4:39-54
I. Introduction: In this morning’s message, we discover that Jesus leaves Samaria, and travels back into the town of Cana, where His first miracle was performed (cf. 2:11).
a. As we follow Jesus on this journey through the gospel of John, we will discover a powerful contrast between the Jews and the Samaritans, as far as their response to Jesus is concerned. As we leave Samaria with Jesus we discover that the Samaritans pleaded with Him to stay, because they couldn’t get enough of His teachings (4:39-42). And yet, when He travels into Galilee, we will see that He is greatly received by the Galilean Jews, because they couldn’t wait to see more signs and wonders from Him (4:43-45), while at the same time, He is desperately sought out by a nobleman whose son was on his death bed (4:46-54).
b. The situation going on here in the life of Jesus as He encounters different people hasn’t really changed throughout the history of the church. Even here at BFC, we have had at times, individuals who like the Samaritans, are eager to hear God’s word and respond to it in obedient faith. We have had individuals who seem to be more concerned in witnessing Jesus do signs and wonders. And we always have individuals whose lives are on the brink of disaster, and they come to Jesus in desperation hoping that He will answer their prayers.
c. Within this group of individuals there are those whose hope and faith is demonstrated in an authentic way, and then there are those whose hope and faith is proven to be in things other than Jesus Himself.
d. These dynamic comparisons of faith responses are what have inspired the big question we will be answering this morning: What does authentic faith look like?
II. Message: If you would please stand in honor of reading God’s Word, we are going to begin our study in John 4:39-42.
a. What does Authentic Faith look like? It’s based upon our RESPONSE to God’s WORD (4:39-42)
i. READ: John 4:39-42
ii. Here we read about the powerful ministry that Jesus had among the Samaritans, which took place because He first witnessed to the Samaritan woman, and then caused her to believe that He was indeed the Messiah. This new life that she was given inspired her to immediately go and tell her entire village. One of the things that I don’t want you to miss here is the fact that Jesus didn’t have to convince her to go out and tell the world. In fact, Jesus didn’t even ask her to do anything, but drink of the Living Water that He had to offer her. She drank the water, and then she just went and told everyone she knew, where they can have that water to! She wanted everyone to know that Jesus is real and that He had changed her from within. Her testimony caused many Samaritans from her town to come and meet Jesus for themselves.
iii. And what I want to point out here in this section of scripture about authentic faith is seen in the way they responded to God’s Word.
iv. READ: John 4:40-41
v. These Samaritans believed in Jesus, not because of the signs and wonders that He performed, not even because He Omnisciently new every deed and action that the Samaritan woman had done in her past, but because of His Word. Much like Jesus taught the Samaritan woman about Living Water, I am sure He no doubt brought many other powerful scriptural truths to them, as they testified that they believed His word (4:41-42). Not only did they believe the Word of God, but they wanted Jesus to stay with them. They did not want Him to leave. In fact, it says they “urged” Jesus to stay (v.40). This is the right and only way to live life with authentic faith, to respond to God’s Word and to urgently pursue a personal relationship with Jesus.
vi. It is this idea that has inspired the 1st answer to this mornings’ big question. What does Authentic Faith look like? It’s based upon our RESPONSE to God’s WORD (4:39-42)
vii. If you and I want to have authentic faith, we have got to come to Jesus for the right reasons by responding to God’s Word in the correct way, and urgently pursuing a personal relationship with Jesus throughout our life.
viii. As we move onto this mornings’ second passage, we will see that this next group of people were not pursing Jesus in this manner.
b. What does Authentic Faith look like? It is NOT based upon our EMOTIONS but our DEVOTIONto Jesus (4:43-49)
i. READ: John 4:43-49
ii. Notice we are back at Cana where the wedding took place, so we’ve come full circle. The purpose of the first miracle at Cana was so the disciples might believe. He went to Jerusalem, cleansed the temple, did miracles there and people believed, but it wasn’t a saving faith. The people in Jerusalem were curious about the miracles, but they were fickle in their faith, which shows us that miracles don’t necessarily lead to saving faith. The Samaritans believed without seeing any miracles.
iii. And it’s really this idea that has inspired the 2nd answer to this mornings’ big question, which is what we are going to be unpacking together right now.
iv. In (vv.43-45) we read that when Jesus entered Galilee, “the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they had gone to the feast” also.
v. What things did they see? Not only did they most likely see Jesus clear the temple out of all the compromise that was going on in there, but as John 2:23 says, “while Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in His name.” No doubt this is why the Galileans are so readily “receiving” Jesus as He enters back into Cana.
vi. And yet, LOOKING ON THE NEXT SLIDE: in John 2:24-25 we read, But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.”
vii. And so we can tell from this response that Jesus gives to the nobleman, along with the watching Galilean crowd in Cana, that Jesus knew these individuals were not coming after Jesus because of their desire to follow Jesus, but instead, it was their desire to have Jesus do something for them. What Jesus is calling them on in (v.48) is that they weren’t really believing in Him. They wanted WHAT Jesus could give to them, but they didn’t want Jesus Himself. That’s what’s happening here. These Galileans don’t really want Jesus, they want what Jesus can GIVE them. So everybody there … was there for what they could get from Jesus. And Jesus rebukes them for it in (v.48).
viii. READ: John 4:48
ix. You see, turning to Jesus in faith requires understanding certain truths about Him. There is content to our faith. A lot of people say they’ve trusted Jesus because they had an experience, some sort of emotional epiphany, or spiritual high that made them feel better during a difficult season of life. And because of this newfound excitement or enthusiasm, they jump on the Jesus bandwagon. If you asked them if they are a follower of Jesus, they would certainly affirm it, as long as Jesus keeps getting them out of life’s difficulties.
x. Though this rebuke can seem like Jesus was addressing the grieving and worried dad who travelled over 20 miles by foot in order to plead with Jesus to intervene on his son’s behalf, the rebuke was not for the man, but for the people that were gathered together there with Jesus and the man. Jesus says, “Unless YOU PEOPLE” (plural) see signs and wonders you will by no means believe.” Therefore, this rebuke is aimed at the watching crowd. He knows that the crowd is there for one thing only, to watch Jesus perform.
c. What does Authentic Faith look like? It is NOT based upon a single DECISION but a growing DEPENDENCE on Jesus (4:46-54)
i. READ: John 4:46-54
ii. As soon as Jesus arrives back into Cana, a man approaches Him. The man’s son is dying and he has travelled almost 20 miles to see Jesus and plead with Him to heal his child. The word for “nobleman” is from the root word for “king.” So what this means is that this man is a “royal official” of the king. He was most likely an official of Herod Agrippa who ruled over Galilee at that time. This nobleman was a man of wealth, power and influence, and yet, here he is desperately pleading to Jesus for his sons life.
iii. There’s a true saying that “Desperate people do desperate things!” Talk about a man who is in a desperate place in life? Not only does he walk 20 miles with a glimmer of hope that just maybe Jesus can heal his son, but he’s also a nobleman going to the seek the aid of the Son of a carpenter!
iv. There is not a person here this morning that has not, at some point, faced some kind of desperate situation in life, where the choices were few and the solutions felt impossible and out of our control, and the only way our crisis situation could be fixed is if God truly shows up.
v. READ: John 4:50a
vi. Jesus says to him, “Your son lives.” At that point, this man was faced with a HUGE decision. Jesus had given the man His word so now the question for this man is: Will you believe Jesus or not? Jesus says, “I’ll meet your need.” But Lord, I need a sign; but Lord, I need you to do it this way; but Lord, I have to see You working… then I will believe! The biggest issue we face is not whether or not God is able or if He is willing. The biggest issue we face is whether or not we will believe!
vii. READ: John 4:50b
viii. And here we read the moment Jesus spoke those words, this man not only believed Jesus could heal his son, he believed he would heal his son.
ix. READ: John 4:51-53
x. Twice in this passage, the Bible says this man believed (4:50-53). We find the same pattern with the Samaritans in (vv.39-41). In neither case are we told when the individual was saved. John is showing us how authentic faith always results in continued belief. John is telling us that when a person truly puts their faith in Jesus, they continue in that faith, believing and obeying Jesus.
xi. The nobleman took Jesus at His word and walked the 20-miles back home to prove it. As he is heading home, his servants met him and told him, “Your son lives!” (4:51)
xii.
xiii. What an incredible moment this must have been for this man, as in faith he believed Jesus when He told him that his son was healed (4:50), and yet what a long difficult walk that 20 miles would have been. He must have had incredible hope but at the same time, much like Peter, all of us take our eyes off of Jesus’ promises at times, and look at the enormous waves that are surrounding us, and I don’t believe this man was any different. But either way, the moment of truth comes in (v.51) as he meets up with his servants who inform him, “You son lives!”
xiv. What an incredible moment in this mans life when faith is connected with the God who does the impossible!
xv. This individual now has the opportunity to go one of two ways when this happen. Like so many people we know, who either continue on strong with Jesus after this encounter, or they begin an endless cycle of treating Jesus like a heavenly genie, only coming to Him when they are in dire straits, and then once God gets them out of their situation they forget about Him again, and go back to life as usual. This is the reality that stands before that nobleman here.
xvi. That is how many people are with God. They go to God as a problem solver. “God if You will just get me out of this problem, I promise to…” or, “God if You just heal me or my family member…” Or “God if You just get me this job or that relationship.”
xvii. The good news is that God does hear and answer prayers. But if you are only going to God so that God will get you out of a difficult situation. If you are only following Jesus during the seasons of life where you have found yourself in a terrible place, you are not truly living with authentic faith, and you are not too much different than the Galilean’s who gladly received Jesus. But it wasn’t receiving Jesus because of their love for Jesus, it was for what Jesus could do for them.
xviii. But this man here shows us that our faith cannot simply be inspired by one specific decision or incident that takes place, it has to turn into a growing dependence upon Jesus. In fact, its this idea that has inspired our 3rd and final answer to this mornings big question.
xix. What does Authentic Faith look like? It is NOT based upon a single DECISION but a growing DEPENDENCE on Jesus (4:46-54)
xx. When we make the “decision” to come to Jesus, much like this nobleman did, our encounter with Jesus, should lead us to a “growing dependence” upon Jesus.
III. Life Application:
a. Today we have been looking at 3 groups of individuals, whose hope and faith is demonstrated in different ways, and how two of the groups clearly have an authentic faith, while one of the groups did not.
b. Are you in search of Jesus, or are you in search of signs and wonders? Or a better question is this, are you in search of Jesus or in search of what you can get from Jesus?
c. These dynamic comparisons of faith responses are what have inspired the big question that we answered this morning: What does authentic faith look like?
i. It’s based upon our RESPONSE to God’s WORD (4:39-42)
ii. It is NOT based upon our EMOTIONS but our DEVOTION to Jesus (4:43-49)
iii. It is NOT based upon a single DECISION but a growing DEPENDENCE on Jesus (4:46-54)
