SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/22/2016
10:25 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Nobleman
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 4:43-54
Message of
the verses: “43 After the two days were over, Jesus left
and went away to Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself testified that a prophet enjoys
no honor in his own country.) 45 And on his arrival the people received him
with open arms. For they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem during the
festival, since they had themselves been present. 46 So Jesus came again to
Cana in Galilee, the place where he had made the water into wine. At Capernaum
there was an official whose son was very ill. 47 When he heard that Jesus had
left Judaea and had arrived in Galilee, he went off to see him and begged him
to come down and heal his son, who was by this time at the point of death. 48
Jesus said to him, "Will you never believe unless you see signs and
wonders?" 49 “Sir," returned the official, "please come down
before my boy dies!" 50 “You can go home," returned Jesus, "your
son is alive." And the man believed what Jesus had said to him and went on
his way. 51 On the journey back his servants met him with the report "Your
son is alive and well." 52 So he asked them at what time he had begun to
recover, and they replied: "The fever left him yesterday at one o’clock in
the afternoon." 53 Then the father knew that this must have happened at
the very moment when Jesus had said to him, "Your son is alive." And
he and his whole household believed in Jesus. 54 This, then, was the second
sign that Jesus gave on his return from Judaea to Galilee Phillips).”
I realize that we have gone over these verses
before, but I promised to quote some of the things that Dr. Warren Wiersbe
wrote in his commentary on the gospel of John about these verses. I have mentioned over and over again how much
I appreciate Dr. Wiersbe and how he can take difficult passages and make sense
of them so that I can understand them.
As I mentioned he puts the cookies on the shelf where you can reach
them, and I for one, like the cookies that he leaves on those shelves.
“Why did Jesus return to Cana? Perhaps He wanted to cultivate the ‘seed’ He
had planted there when He attended the wedding feast. Nathanael came from Cana, so perhaps there
was a personal reason for this visit.
Jesus was met at Cana by a nobleman from Capernaum, some twenty miles
away. The man had heard about His
miracles and came all that distance to intercede for his son who was
dying. The first miracle at Cana came at
the request of His mother (2:1-5), and this second miracle at Cana at the
request of a father (John 4:47).”
John 4:48 was not a rebuke of this nobleman. Rather, it was our Lord’s lament at the
spiritual condition of the people in general, both in Judea and Galilee. ‘Seeing is believing has always been the ‘pragmatic’
philosophy of the lost world, even the religious world. The nobleman believed that Jesus could heal
his son, but he made two mistakes in his thinking that Jesus had to go to
Capernaum to save the lad, and that if the boy died meanwhile, it was too late.
“We must admire this man’s faith. Jesus simply said, ‘Go thy way; thy son
liveth’ (John 4:50). And the man
believed Jesus and started to return home!
Both the Samaritan woman and this anonymous nobleman must have rejoiced
the heart of Jesus as they believed the word and acted on it.
“The boy was healed the instant Jesus spoke those
words; so the man’s servants started out to find him so they could share the
good news. (Again, it is the servants
who know what is going on. See John 2:9;
15:15.) The boy had been healed at the
seventh hour, which, in Roman time, would be 7 o’clock in the evening. The father certainly would not have traveled
at night, for that would have been dangerous; nor would the servants have taken
that risk. The father’s faith was so strong
that he was willing to delay going home, even though his heart yearned to see
his beloved son.”
“This man began with crisis faith. He was about
to lose his son and he had no other recourse but the Lord Jesus Christ. Many people came to Jesus with their crises,
and He did not turn them away. The
nobleman’s crisis faith became confident
faith: he believed the Word and had
peace in his heart. He was even able to
delay his trip home, knowing that the boy was out of danger.
“His confident faith became confirmed faith. Indeed, the
boy had been completely healed! And the
healing took place at the very time when Jesus spoke the Word. It was this fact that made a believer out of
the nobleman and his household. He
believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God; and he shared this faith
with his family. He had contagious faith and shared his
experience with others.”
“John 4:54 does not state that this healing was the
second miracle that Jesus ever performed, for that would contradict John 2:23
and 3:2. This was the second miracle He
performed in Cana of Galilee (see
John 2:1, 11). He certainly gave those
people special privileges.
“But we must note that both miracles were ‘private’ rather
than public. Mary, the disciples, and
the servants knew where the excellent wine had come from, but the guests did
not. (Of course, it is possible that the
servants told the story to others.) The
nobleman’s son was healed at Capernaum, not Cana; but news traveled rapidly in
those days and certainly the word got out.
“Jesus’ first
miracle at the wedding revealed His power over time. The Father is always
making water into wine, but He takes a season or two to finish the work. Jesus made the wine instantly. In this sense, our Lord’s miracles were only instantaneous copies of what the Father
is always doing. ‘My Father worketh
hitherto, and I work’ (John 5:17). The
Father is constantly multiplying bread, season after season, but the Son multiplied
it instantly.
“In the second recorded miracle, Jesus showed His
power over space. He was not limited simply because He was in
Cana and the sick boy was in Capernaum.
The fact that the father believed the word and did not know the results
until the next day is evidence that he had confident faith. He trusted the word that Jesus spoke, and so
should we.”
I have highlighted the second to last paragraph from
Dr. Wiersbe’s quotes to say that this is something new to me, even though I did
quote it in an earlier SD, the way that he brings John 5:17 into the miracle of
water into wine, and feeding the 5000 with the bread makes perfect sense to
me. I hope that this SD will be
something helpful and enjoyable to those who read it as we get a bit of the
flavor of Warren Wiersbe in it.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “In the upper room with the
120” (Acts 1:14).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said, ‘I indeed baptize
you with water unto repentance’?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/22/2016 11:05 AM
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