Believing and Seeing (John 4:43-54) | 03.22.26

Intro:

         Sign, wonders, miracles. These things have sparked discussion from the dawn of time, and are still hot button issues within the church today. Well, in this passage what John teaches us is that the real issue isn’t whether miracles happen, Scripture teaches they do, but that what really matters is the relationship they have to our faith. And what John is showing us are two kinds of faith: a faith that needs to see before it believes, and a faith that believes and then sees.” 2x.

A Faith that needs to See before in Believes:

         Our text begins in v.43 by telling us that “after two days he (Jesus) departed for Galilee.” We know from the previous weeks that Jesus has been doing some spectacularly effective ministry in Samaria. He comes to the woman at the well, and after some hard but loving conversation, she confesses that she knows the Messiah is coming. To which Jesus responds to her “I who speak to you, I am.” This I AM phrase is the same name that God revealed to Moses at the burning bush. This is the divine name, and what does she do? She leaves her empty jars behind and tells the entire city. The ostracized, scandalized, Samaritan woman… now the Evangelist. There is something about meeting the real Jesus that will do that to you.  

         Now, what happens next is important for understanding our passage today. John takes great care to tell us how these Samaritans believed, and what they were believing. I think this is best exemplified in verses 39-42 so lets read that section and see if we see the theme. 39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

         Do you hear the theme? Testimony, told, because of His word, we have heard for ourselves. The Samaritans didn’t believe because they saw miracles, but they believed because they heard Christ’s word. And what did they believe? “That this is indeed the Savior of the world.” John is establishing the pattern of genuine belief echoing Paul when he says in Romans 10:17 “that faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. This is the key that unlocks this passage because John now juxtaposes this kind of faith, the faith of those scandalous Samaritans, with the faith of the Galileans. His own people…

         V.44 tells us the reason that Jesus is returning to Galilee, it is because a prophet has no honor in his own hometown. It isn’t accidental that Jesus is returning there, again its part of the plan. In the prologue of John, which really acts as a map for the rest of John, we are told in v.11  “ He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” This is part of the plan; Jesus comes to back to the place where He grew up. Back to his old neighbors and family friends. They not only reject Him, but in just a short time they will be the ones yelling to Pontius Pilate “crucify Him!” His own people do not receive Him, but its part of God’s sovereign plan.

         Then we see something that seems a little funny at first in  v.45 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast. What’s going on here? Jesus just said a prophet doesn’t have honor in his home town. Well, this isn’t honor, it's excitement. They’re drawn to what Jesus can do, not to who He is. They want the Rockstar Rabbi, not the Son of God. And John has already told us: that that kind of faith, built on signs, is not the kind Jesus entrusts Himself to. In fact, the last half of v.45 should be drawing our attention back to that to John 2:23-24 “23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people”

There is a kind of faith, a sign seeking faith, an excitement driven, power hungry faith that dishonors Jesus. It’s a faith that would seek to use Christ, not serve Him. It’s ultimately a faith that doesn’t know Christ, but just craves benefits an association with Him brings. Though the scriptures call it believing, its not true belief. It’s the seed that gets choked out by the thorns of the world. Its fair weather faith, an easy believism that OOh rahs Jesus as long as the baskets of bread are coming in, but as soon as dying to self gets involved… well it doesn’t want to be one of the radical Christians… ya know.  

         I am further convinced that this is the direction John is taking us because in v.46 he tells us that Jesus returned to Cana, the very place where he turned the water into wine. Surely, there would have been excitement in that town at Jesus’ return. It’s obvious that His fame was far spread at this point. When word reached Capernaum approximately 15 miles away, a nobleman hears about it. This nobleman’s son was dying of an illness, and he makes the day-long journey to come beg Jesus to save his son’s life.

There is some kind of faith here. Nobody would willingly leave their child who is on their death bed unless they believe they can find a cure. This guy works in the court of a local king. He would have had access to the most modern medicine and best physicians of the time. The official knew what his son needed; he needed a miracle. So, the official goes to Cana and asks Jesus to heal his son. Let’s look at Jesus’ response in v.48 “48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” Whoa, Jesus this guy just wants to save His dying son and You rebuke Him like this? That seems a bit harsh…

Well, let me give some context for this verse. We know that at this point whenever Jesus was in public, He would have been surrounded by crowds seeking signs or miracles. Jesus is not just speaking exclusively to the man; he is also speaking the crowd. He is saying “unless you all, (let me speak Southern) y’all, see you will not believe.” Jesus is using the situation of the Royal official to teach the crowds. This is a warning to us as well. It is possible to be around Jesus, excited for Jesus, and even believe certain things about Jesus, yet have a type of faith that Jesus does entrust Himself to. 

People like to think that if a spectacular miracle were performed by God for all to see, then the world would never doubt again. But that’s now how the Scriptures portray it. Think about the Exodus. God literally split the Red Sea for Israel and they passed through. From atop Mt. Sinai in a cloud of fire and smoke He spoke the ten commandments over Israel, to which they trembled and begged Moses so that they wouldn’t have to approach that mountain. Yet, throughout their wanderings they continually grumbled and rebelled against God and Moses… Leading to them receiving the name, “that faithless generation.” Only Joshua and Caleb would enter the promised land who was a part of the group who left Egypt, and that group witnessed some of the most spectacular miracles ever recorded. This kind of faith is not genuine faith, but it is the seed that is planted and is swept away by the enemy, scorched by the sun, or choked out by the thorns of the world. 

Seeing is not the same as believing. Genuine faith does not come from spectacle, but from the renewing work of the Spirit through the Word. You can witness miracles with your eyes, and still be blind in your heart. And that same danger doesn’t just belong to Israel it can show up in us. 

         There is a subtle kind of sign seeking that even affects genuine Christians. It is a faith being held hostage by circumstance. That if God doesn’t miraculously heal this condition, or miraculously give us a child, or miraculously bring us a spouse, then He must not be for us. When we experience suffering, it can cause us to question if God is really with us. How can I hurt this much when I have the miracle-worker on my side? To the non-believer the answer is “God doesn’t exist because of the suffering in the world.. It looks more like “My suffering must mean that I am not really saved, God isn’t with me.” There is a unique kind of sadness that accompanies our assurance being held captive by our circumstance. A sadness that that brings doubt, insecurity, and fear. This subtle kind of sign-seeking slowly robs of our boldness and joy. If your assurance depends on what you can see, it will never be stable. But Christ’s word does not change when our lives do. His Word is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. His every word is a promise because it cannot be broken, and He has promised that He will never leave nor forsake you. That is the anchor of our hope.

I think this is the kind of faith the Royal Official exhibits and we are meant to hold that in contrast with Galileans. That will take us to our second point.           

Point 2: A Faith that Believes then Sees

         You would think that this stern rebuke might shake the Royal official, but he doubles down saying to Jesus in v.49 “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Whatever kind of faith this man has at this moment, he is willing to humble himself and ask again for what he needs. I’ll show my hand here. I believe the text shows genuine faith here, something that starts off weak but a faith Christ recognizes and grows through the rest of this story. V.48 was a rebuke for the Galilean crowds, but a test for this man. One which he passes. 

         In the following verse of our passage Jesus tells the man “Go your son will live.” And we are told the man believed the word of Jesus and went on His way. Here is that same theme we saw with the Samaritans, the man heard Jesus’ word and He believed. John is telling us, this man really believed. Jesus’ word was enough for Him, and because of that He receives more.

         Look, this guy came with misconceptions about Jesus. In his requests, he asks Jesus to hurry up and come with him because his son is dying. The first misconception he makes about Jesus is that Jesus in bound by space, when he says, “come with me.” This man was thinking along the lines of other ‘miracle’ workers in his day who traveled city to city so show their wonders. The second misconception he has is that he thinks Jesus is bound by time, when he says “before my child dies.” Even if his son had died, Jesus could have brought him back from the dead. This is the core lesson Jesus teaches his disciples when He brings Lazarus back from the dead.

In John 11, Jesus tells his disciples “4This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son might be glorified through it.” And nearly right after Jesus tells His disciples “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.”

Two awesome and gracious things happen when believers witness a miracle. 1st, God’s glory is revealed to us. The reason they are called signs is because they point to something else, and what they reveal to us is who God is. Miracles reveal God’s glory.. This is the reason for the hesitancy we have towards platforms who claim to do miracles on demand, whose ministerial identity is based on drawing people who are sign-seekers. There is a great risk in that kind of wonder working, that it does not point people to the glory of God, but the glory and authority of men or women. I am not saying that God does not still perform the miraculous, but that there is an inherent danger in ministries who claim to control the miraculous.

         The second thing is that miracles are a gift given to believers to increase their faith. This is what Jesus says that to his disciples in John 11, and it is the sequence of events we see play out here. The text says that the man believed Jesus’ word, and he went on his way. Think about the faith this man just exhibited! He comes to Jesus saying please hurry up and come with me, my boy is dying. And Jesus shatters his categories by saying “Go, your son will live.” Look, this requires belief in God’s word, not in man’s word because only God speaks creation bends to His will. 

Jesus broke this man’s assumptions about Him, and required Him to believe things about Him only God can do… Because Jesus is teaching Him, I am God… I am not bound by space or time. I am not confined; I am not hurried. My word doesn’t bend to reality, reality bends at my word. The man believes Jesus, no proof, no sign, just the Word’s of Jesus.  And he is willing to let his son’s life hang on them. He doesn’t need Jesus to come, he doesn’t ask for further evidence. Christ has spoken and that is enough.

The man goes on his way, and what we see next is the effect of a man who believes and then sees. 

We see this in verses 51-53:

51 As he was going down, his servants[d] met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour[e] the fever left him.” 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 

         The man is met by his servants on the way home and they inform him his son is doing better than ever, and even then, he still questions it. But when the servants tell him the exact hour, he knows… And the story ends by telling us he believed (his belief was deepened or confirmed). This is the second point from Jesus teaching in John 11, but even more, it is extended to this man’s entire household! What does empowered faith do? It bears fruit. Some a hundred-fold, like the Samaritan woman, some thirty fold like this Royal Official.

         This royal official has become the interpreter of this sign within his household so that the glory of God might be revealed to them all, and they believe. The sign would do no good if there was no one there who knew who it pointed to. I believe God works miracles today, and He does it to reveal His glory and deepen our faith. The sign doesn’t create our faith, but our faith interprets the sign. We believe and are then able to see.

         My wife and I, when we were working for a Campus ministry, took a short-term trip to India to try and establish relationships so we could send college students there for internships. We met a man whose story has stayed with us ever since. He lives in a remote Himalayan town called Mussoorie—but he grew up even further out, in a village with no modern buildings, just huts and a small trading center. When he was a young boy, he contracted a condition that left him unable to walk. In that setting, that’s a death sentence. So, his parents did the only thing they knew: they went into debt to hire a shaman to summon a spirit to heal him through possessing him. Evil spirits like properly working bodies you know.

But this young boy had something hidden in the wall of his home: a New Testament his brother had left behind. While he was laying on the mat in his parents hut, he kept coming back to the Gospel of John: especially the story of the paralytic. He began to ask: Who is this Jesus? A man who heals free of charge… who doesn’t possess people but frees them. He began to believe in Jesus, the God-man. And he began to pray, quietly, from his mat in the corner.

Well, the day came for the ritual. Other people who were possessed or being possessed started cutting themselves and dancing around ecstatically. The boy was terrified, and while the shaman worked for hours, the boy quietly prayed.  The Shaman sacrificed animals, shouted cantations, and performed his work, but after some time, he stopped and said to the parents, “I can’t do it.”

Well, the boy’s parents were furious, they had gone into debt for this. But the shaman said, “None of the spirits will enter him, because a more powerful Spirit is claiming him. There is nothing I can do.” They asked, “Who is this spirit? How do we appease him?” And the boy who was watching this unfold cried out: “It’s Jesus! Jesus has heard my prayers! “That moment changed everything. The family, seeing what had happened, came to believe. And later, the boy was healed and now leads a ministry in that region. He would return to that village as an adult and evangelize those people. They remembered what happened and He told us that many of them gave there lives to Christ. He was our host in India, we got to meet him and his family and see all that God was doing through him. 

But don’t miss it, the miracle didn’t create his faith. What brought him to faith was the Word his brother had left behind. And when the miracle came, it was his faith that interpreted the sign for everyone else. He believed and then he saw. And through his faith, his whole household came to believe.

         My worry for us, is that out of fear of getting caught-up in a sign seeking mentality, we inadvertently put boxes around God and blind ourselves to the miraculous ways He shows up. Listen, God normally works through ordinary means, but what I am saying is that He is not limited by them. I think we can miss out on experiencing God’s glory when we start thinking God can’t show up in outside the boxes we put Him in. We don’t ground our faith on seeing signs, but we don’t deny that God shows up in ways that we can’t explain. We must have a category where God will be God. I pray the eyes of our heart are opened to see God’s glory in those moments.

Conclusion:

What John has shown us are two kinds of faith. One is a hollow faith that needs signs to stay alive. It is impressed with what Jesus can do, but it never bows to who He is. But the other kind of faith hears His word and says “it is enough.” It hears that the eternal Son of God has come in the flesh. That He lived the life we could not live, died the death we deserved, and was raised in victory over sin and death. That He now reigns at the right hand of the Father and will come again to judge the living and the dead. And it believes. Not because we have seen all this, but because Christ has spoken. And here is the promise: that kind of faith will not be disappointed. Jesus Himself says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. For now, we walk by faith not by sight. We are able to cling to His promises when nothing around us seems to confirm them. 

Do you want a faith a faith like that? Do you want assurance that is not choked by the trials life? Do you find yourself looking to your circumstances to justify your standing with God? Let Christ help you, ask to help you. He has promised He will if you will ask. And that prayer can look something like this. Lord I believe, help me with my unbelief.” 

Faith is the substance of the things unseen, but this will not always be the case. One day, faith will give way to sight. We will see Him not from a distance, not through a mirror dimly but face to face. We will behold His glory. Every promise confirmed. Every tear wiped away. Every doubt silenced in the presence of Christ. And in that moment, we will realize His hand was with us, guiding us, and providing for us all along.

Believe His word and you will see.

Let’s pray.

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