Episode Transcript
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Earn your attention with me to John
Chapter, for this is the end of
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this chapter John, for I'm going
to read from Verse Forty Three To the
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end of the chapter. Let's give
attention to God's word. After two days
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he departed for Galilee, for Jesus
himself had testified that a prophet has no
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honor in his own hometown. So
when he came to Galilee, the Galileans
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welcomed him, having seen all that
he had done in Jerusalem at the feast,
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for they too had gone to the
feast. So he came again to
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Cana in Galilee, where he had
made the water wine. And at Copernum
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there was an official whose son was
ill. When this man heard that Jesus
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had come from Judea to Galilee,
he went to him and asked him to
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come down and heal his son,
for he was at the point of death.
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So Jesus said to him, unless
you see signs and wonders, you
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will not believe. The official said
to him, sir, come down before
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my child dies. Jesus said to
him, go, your son will live.
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The man believed the word that Jesus
spoke to him and went on his
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way, as he was going down, his servants met him and told him
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that he, his son, was
recovering. So he asked them the hour
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when he began to get better and
they said to him yesterday, at the
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seventh hour the fever left him.
The father knew that was the hour when
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Jesus had send to said to him
your son will live, and he himself
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believed and all his household. And
this this knell, the second sign that
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Jesus did when he had come from
Judea to Galilee. Amen maybe seated in
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this passage we have this interesting contrast
between Jesus's strong words. Unless you see
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signs and wonders, you will not
believe. Reminiscent of rebukes, he gives
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another places about signs and wonders.
Well, also we have John's comment at
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the end of this section that this
was the second sign that he did,
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and indeed it was a sign that
he gave. There is, I'm here
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in this in this story that John
Records for us about this event when Jesus
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went back to Galilee and met this
official, important lessons for us about faith,
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about what it means to believe in
Jesus, about the results that come
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from believing him. Another and other
things along these lines. I'm just to
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remind I know I just read it, but I think it's always helpful to
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just review the story a little bit. I'm partly for those who have heard
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it for the first time. I'm
partly for those who've got a little distracted
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the first time. It's helpful,
but just to review it. Jesus comes
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back to Galilee, a place he's
been before, to Cana and that area,
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John tells us. Or remember,
Jesus was here before. This is
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where he turned water into wine.
We get a sense that the word is
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spreading, just as we saw when
Jesus was in Samaria. He told the
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woman at the well. She went
and told her town. The word spread
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the things that he had done in
Judea had the news had spread not just
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through Judea but now up in Galilee. John tells us why that was.
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There were folks who were there when
Jesus was there. I'm doing the things
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that he was doing, and now
they go back home and they're telling people
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about it. This reminds us over
and over again. John is showing us
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how this word is spreading, how
the the news of Jesus and who he
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is is is indeed going out into
the world. And so there he meets
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a man and official. It's doesn't
say exactly what kind of official he was.
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Commentators disagree as to whether he was
a gentile or not. Nevertheless,
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Jesus meets this, we could say, a high ranking person of some sort,
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and this person has a problem,
very serious problem. His son is
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about to die. We have actually
a number of accounts throughout the scriptures,
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and maybe in your lives as well, of children who are about to die
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and the the the sadness that comes
with that, the pleading that comes with
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that, of the desire for God's
salvation. This man is no different.
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He comes to Jesus and he he
asks him to come down, come to
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my child before he dies. Jesus
says go, your son will live.
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And interestingly, the man it says
he believes right here at this point.
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He doesn't believe later, when he
does also believe later. But his turning
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point is not when he finds out
when his son was healed. Right.
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It's only later that he asks the
servant and the Servant says it was at
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the seventh hour, and he kind
of connects all the dots and it of
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course encourages his faith, right,
he says, and he believed. What
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happens there is and his whole household. I'm some I read one commentator that
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suggested a little bit speculatively that perhaps
the man asks this question of the servant
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not just of his own curiosity but
for the purpose of spreading the word,
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for the purpose of seeing his whole
household come to faith in Christ as well,
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and all these things. We see
a lot of different things about who
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Jesus is, what is mission is, and I want to to think about
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some of those with you this morning. The first thing I think we can
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observe here is that Jesus, Miss
Jesus, Jesus is mission is truly for
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the whole world. We're only in
John Chapter Four, and think about and
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Jesus hasn't even traveled that far.
And think about who has been affected already.
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We've had backwater GALILEAN's, high ranking
Jewish leaders, men, women,
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honorable people, dishonorable people, secular
people, religious people, family members of
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Jesus, non family members of Jesus. As Jesus is going out, we
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see very quickly that there is this
great broadness, broadness in the way that
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Jesus is bringing a light to the
world, is how John Describes it,
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and this leads us to a truth
with too corresponding parts. The first one
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is that no one has a particular
claim on Jesus. No person here or
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anywhere in the world is more privileged
than another there before God, by virtue
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of their ancestry, ethnicity, social
status, good works, money, power,
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land, knowledge, anything that might
mark us out as being higher or
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lower, rightly or wrongly, in
this world. None of it gives us
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any edge before God. None of
us have a special back door channel,
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none of us have a extra way
into the presence of the Lord. Jesus
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says, I am the way,
I am the truth, I am the
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light. No one comes to the
father except through me. It's not through
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our works, it's not through our
backgrounds, are education anything else, only
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through him. No one has a
particular claim on Jesus because before Him we're
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all just weakened, helpless sinners.
He is our only way. There's nothing
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that we can bring. But this
has a corresponding side to it, and
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that's this. And that means that
none of us are excluded from the promises
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he's makes because of these things either. It means that, just as none
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of us have a particular edge or
a particular way into the presence of God,
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it also means that none of us
are excluded either because of these things,
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wherever the world would push us aside, wherever the world would treat us
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poorly because of things in our pasts
that we have done, things that we
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have no control over at all.
Whatever it is, God promises that all
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who come to him and faith will
be received by him, that he saves
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all those who put their trust in
him. Jesus's mission is a very broad
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a second observation we can make from
this passage is that Jesus is mission is
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not just about doing fancy miracles.
This is very important because some Christians teach
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and live their lives in a way
where signs and wonders are everything everything.
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I have had many friends and even
grew up in some environments like this,
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where signs and miracles and wonders it's
all they talk about, it's all they
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want. You can go into a
certain bookstores and and read the titles of
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books. You know how to get
your sign, how to get your miracle,
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how to find this amazing thing.
And so, in this view,
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of the Christian life. The Christian
is one who's simply searching for that next
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moment, that next experience, that
God thing that happens. Miracles and signs,
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visions, words from God, amazing
things, they're everything, so much
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so that they become the source of
faith, reason for their faith, the
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hope for their faith. People that
believe this way they ground their their life,
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their piety, their hope on these
things, and what ends up happening
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is that their faith goes up and
down, up and down, and correspondence
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to how frequently they experience what they
perceive as this power or thing from God.
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I haven't had a sign in a
while, I haven't had a vision
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in a while, I haven't had
a word from the Lord. I'm feeling
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dry, I'm feeling separated, and
it's up and it's down, and it's
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up and it's down. This is
a very dangerous way to live and it's
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not saving. It doesn't bring us
salvation merely to experience the amazing things of
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God. There were many people throughout
the scriptures who followed Jesus. We read
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people that went from town to town, place to place, that heard of
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the things he did and yet receive
no eternal benefit from them, and sometimes
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Jesus even rebukes people concerning signs and
miracles. Sometimes he even refuses to give
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them, as I think he is
also doing here when he says to this
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man who asked, will you come
save my son? Unless you see signs
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and miracles are signs and wonders,
you will not believe. Want to share
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with you a quote from a German
Lutheran contemporary of Martin Luther Johannes's brands.
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He writes it is not a true
faith which is conceived from miracles and wonders
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or signs, for miracles are merely
seals and witnesses. A seal certifies nothing
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new except what has already been committed
to writing. In the same way,
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witnesses say nothing new, but they
bear witness to the things which have been
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heard or seen. Thus, miracles
do not confer faith and they do not
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take something uncertain and make it certain, but they confirm something that already is
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certain. They do not make believing
persons out of unbelieving persons, but they
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confirm already believing persons in their faith. Now brands puts this in a fairly
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black and white way, and I
think he's right to do that. There
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is, of course, a lot
of room for gray. You remember doubting
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Thomas. We call him right,
and he he Jesus says, put your
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finger in my side, right,
and it was upon doing that that he
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then believed. He saw this thing
and believed. But remember what Jesus says
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after that. He said is blessed
are those who believe and don't see.
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Right. There's the sense in which
Thomas. He was he I think we
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would be fair to say that he
had faith, but he was struggling,
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and that's where signs and miracles do
help us. Later we're going to partake
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of the Lord's supper and we confess
from the scriptures that it is a sign
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and a seal, not proclaiming anything
new, not doing anything different, except
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ceiling what you are hearing right now
in the word. They confirmed to us.
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They strengthen our faith, and that's
what Jesus that's why Jesus does this
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miracle here, to teach us about
his mission, to confirm our faith in
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it. Jesus is miracles reveal his
mission. His work and his life are
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about health and strength and growth.
But they're only signs, signs pointing to
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him as the one who brings these
things, who brings them in a greater
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way than it seems to many others. In fact, through his own death,
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Jesus would bring about the greatest miracle, the defeat of death and the
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resurrection of life, something that is
anticipated here in this boy who is on
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the doorstep of death and rises up
and is made well, hear what I'm
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saying. Clearly, I'm not saying
don't believe in miracles, because John Clearly
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says this is the second sign that
Jesus did right. We're supposed to believe
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the miracle. But the point is
not don't believe in miracles, but the
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point is don't separate them from the
one who is doing the work. Don't
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separate the signs from the one who
is being pointed to. Don't go around
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hoping and trusting for this experience or
that experience or this wonder or that wonder
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and miss the very thing that they
are I'm teaching you when they teach you
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believe, believe. Now this brings
me to my third point, which is
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that faith is hard. Belief can
be difficult sometimes, like this official,
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like Nicodemus, like the Samaritan woman, like Jesus's own mother, and all
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of these conversations, in these meetings
Jesus has had up to this point,
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we see him at work, but
not always at work in the ways that
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people expect. Jesus mother says,
we have a problem here, and he
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says, woman, it's not my
time, and she has to wait and
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rest and say do whatever he tells
you. Jesus Nicodemus comes to Jesus and
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says, rabbi, I have these
questions for you, and Jesus says,
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you're a teacher of the law,
you don't even understand what you're talking about.
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Jesus says to him strange and mysterious
things about being born again. Jesus
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comes to the woman at the well, asks her for a drink of water
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and, well, we've spent some
time on that. You know what happens
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next. A strange conversation that ultimately
ends up exposing her sins and that she
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was trying to hide. Faith sometimes
is a struggle. Sometimes it even comes
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with rebukes, with the scalpel of
the Lord, as he as our surge
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and works on US painful things.
Again, I would like to quote from
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brand's he says, but how is
it that Christ makes faith stronger by hard
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and adversarial responses? Right, you
come to Jesus and say, right,
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here's this man, my boy is
sick, I need your help. Why
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are you saying this stuff about?
Unless there are signs of miracles, you
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won't believe. I'm here because I
trust you. Right, I'm here.
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Why does Jesus say this hard thing
to this man who's come to him for
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help? You could ask this about
your own life. Why does Jesus do
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a hard things in your life when
you're asking him for help again, brand's
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how is it that Christ makes faith
stronger by a hard and adversarial response to
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this man in particular? Does he
not in fact make it much weaker?
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You are speaking truly brand's rights,
but you should learn the way God works.
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He strikes in order to heal,
he afflicts in order to console,
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he destroys in order to save,
he kills in order to give life,
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and so Christ makes the faith of
the royal official weaker so that it may
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be made stronger. He does his
alien work in order to do his proper
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work. People sometimes will say that
such and such a thing, that was
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a god thing, and what they
mean is what the official will say later.
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Right. We recognize these this amazing
way in which this event corresponds to
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to that event, and we say
wow, God was surely in that and
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truly that was a god thing,
something to notice, something to name and
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praise God and proclaim and believe,
even as his whole household did. But
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we want to be careful when we
use language like that, not to be
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limiting God, not to be seeing
sort of this moment and this amazing timing
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is as a God thing, but
not the word that he heard when he
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came from Judeata Galilee, or not
the path that he walked on on his
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way to go see Jesus, not
the things that happen the next day and
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the next day and the next day
after that. It's important because, as
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Paul says, we see the things
of God through a glass darkly. Have
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you ever tried to look through like
if you pick up your glass at lunchtime
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today and you look through it at
the world right, does it look like?
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Well, it's distorted. Right,
you're seeing reality, but you're seeing
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it not right right. It's it's
bent. It's there but hard to see.
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There's a limited scope of view.
This is so true when we think
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about the work God is doing.
God is always at work, even in
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the things we don't like, even
in his rebukes, even in his hard
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statements, even in his nose.
He may make you wait for things,
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but faith goes forward all the same. We don't have to know all his
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plan, we just have to know
him. In that way, faith is
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blind in one sense, but not
in another. It's blind in the sense
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that we don't know everything that God
knows. If that's what blindness is,
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all right, I guess. I
guess we're blind, but it's not blind
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in the sense that it depends on
nothing except, sort of, I don't
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know, optimism in one's heart.
Faith is not trusting that one has mastered
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the universe and knows all things and
knows the secret plan and will of God.
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Faith is knowing God as he is
revealed himself, as he has made
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his promises in Christ as he shows
to us over and over again in his
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scriptures that Jesus is the one in
if we believe in him, we have
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life, eternal life welling up in
you, as he says to the woman
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at the well, or as he
says to the son or the father,
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go he lives, John says.
If we believe in him, we have
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life in his name. That's what
these things teach us and that is what
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we can depend on. One more
long quote, and it's the last one,
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from Philip my lengthen he writes this
shows us what the nature of faith
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is, namely to conceive a trust
in God that he will save us.
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How and when and through what a
flickans. None of that concerns us.
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Believe and you will be saved,
even if all creatures should oppose you with
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every bad thing. Thus Abraham leaves
the Promised Land, not knowing where it
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would be entered. Thus he awaits
the promised offspring, although he was commanded
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to kill his son. Thus Moses
leads out the children of Israel, although
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he does not know how God will
defend them against the might of Pharaoh.
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When he stands at the Red Sea, not knowing how they will escape,
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he commands them to stand firm and
see the mighty deeds of God. That's
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what we do as Christians. We
stand at the tumultuous sea, filled with
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chaos and unknowing things and death and
fear and all the rest, with the
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army of the world against our backs
and we wait on the Lord. But
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these miracles, these signs that Jesus
are showing us and that he's getting to
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us remind us and are telling us
and teaching us over and over again,
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that we have every reason to there's
no kneasn't no reason to doubt. Abraham
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did come into the promised land,
the Israelites did pass through the Red Sea,
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the man's son was healed, and
so on and on and on.
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Ultimately, this leads us to the
cross, doesn't it? Where Jesus died,
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the one who is supposed to save
US died, but in his death
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he took on our sins as a
perfect sacrifice and overcame death. He rose
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from the dead. He had victory
in the cross. Is Jesus powerful to
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save? Absolutely he's powerful to save, just as he promised to do.
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This is why we put our faith
in him, and this is why we
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put our trust in him. Here's
an interesting question. I'll end with this.
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Can a mere word from Jesus hold
so much power? The man wants
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him to come down to his son. Right, come, right, but
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Jesus, why don't need to come, I can do it right here and
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do it anywhere. Why? Because
the word of God is powerful, it's
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affective. It's compared in scripture to
a sword, for example, that is
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able to to cut. Can a
mirror word from Jesus holds so much power?
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Go your son lives, get up, walk, come to me and
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you will be saved. Miraculous.
Yes, the word of Jesus can hold
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so much power, and it's that, and it's because of that that the
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word of God went out and has
gone out into all the world and that
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now there are people, there are
but believers like us all over the World
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Worshiping and serving our Lord and Savior. Because, as Paul writes and Romans,
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the Gospel, this good news about
Jesus and who he is and what
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he did, what he's doing.
That Gospel is the power of God unto
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salvation, first to the Jews and
then also to the gentiles. God healed
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this man's son from his illness,
but on the cross Jesus did much more
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than that. He took on the
sins of the world so that we wouldn't
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be saved just from a momentary illness
in this life, or even immortal illness
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in this life, but we would
be saved from mortality itself, so that
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we would have immortality, not just
life but eternal life. In his name,
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believe on the Lord Jesus and you
will be saved. Let's pray
