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Advent Productions

Benjamin Ng

Jesus’ Encounter with the Noble Man

Father in heaven, thank you so much for seeing us safely through this week.

Thank you for this time that we can have to come and study your Word together once more.

We ask for your blessing more than anything else, Lord.

We desire your Holy Spirit and you promised that if we ask, you are more than willing and happy to give him to us.

So Lord, please grant him to us this evening that our time together this evening might be profitable for thy glory.

So as you have seen there, we are studying Jesus' encounter with the nobleman.

And it's continued on from what we looked at last week, the woman at the well, the woman of Samaria.

Our first text is found in John 4, 43-44.

Now after 2 days he departed thence and went into Galilee.

Speaking of Jesus, for Jesus himself testified that a prophet hath no honor in his own country.

Jesus is leaving Samaria, especially the city of Sychar, where he met this woman, and he comes to his own place, and he's met with unbelief.

That's why he says here that the Prophet does not have honor in his own country.

It's contrasted with those men and those people that met Jesus in Samaria where they all believed not just the woman's word but also the word of Jesus.

Then when he was coming to Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went unto the feast.

Now why is it that the Galileans believed?

It says here because of the miracle that Jesus did there at the wedding feast where he turned water into wine.

They believed because of the miracle not because of the words of Christ.

John 4 46 Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee where he made the water into wine And so it was this miracle that was very clear and uttermost in the minds of the people.

And then we continue reading, and there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.

So the nobleman, he came among those number that believed, not because they truly believed, but because of the miracle that Jesus did, and that he probably was amongst that group that saw Jesus, or at least experienced Jesus turning water into wine.

Maybe he was 1 of those number that tasted this wine that was the best that man had ever made before.

Verse 47, when he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, he went unto him and besought him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

He came to Jesus because his son was sick to the point that he was almost ready to die.

Any father would be desperate in this sort of situation, right?

So he comes seeking for Jesus, seeking for help that Jesus would come and heal his son.

Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.

Jesus looks at this man and reads clearly the thoughts of his heart.

He does not really believe that Jesus can really heal his son.

He does to a certain extent because that's the reason why he comes to Jesus in the first place, right?

But he won't fully believe on Jesus Christ until he heals his son.

He won't accept him fully as Messiah until Jesus helps him.

It was conditional on granting his personal request.

Many were there that were thinking this way, you see.

They were interested in Jesus from selfish motives.

They hoped to receive some sort of special benefit from his power and the working of his miracles, just like what had happened when Jesus turned the water into wine.

And so they staked their faith on the granting of this temporal favor.

You know friends, that sounds like many of us today, isn't it?

And we believe in Jesus, we want his blessings, we want his power bestowed upon us to work a miracle for us, to bless our life, to enrich us, to give us all these worldly temporal things, such as a job or a spouse or money in the bank maybe and the list is as long as our arm and continues on beyond it.

But if Christ, He doesn't grant it to us, we don't believe in Him.

We claim that because we had to work harder for our life of toil, because Christ didn't answer our prayer or bless us, so that's why we don't have time to worship God.

It's like we have to work it out on our own, and God didn't want to help us, even though I prayed so hard, so I don't want to follow him anymore.

You know that's what the prosperity gospel is all about.

God I come and worship you, you bless me.

It's all about his blessings And if I worship you, you gotta bless me.

I give tithe and offering, you got to bless me.

I read my Bible, surely I'm devotional to you.

But how would you react if God doesn't help?

What if He doesn't help to keep a spouse or a loved 1 safe or alive?

How would you react if God doesn't help us with our financial problems?

How do we react if we fail our exam Even though we studied so hard and prayed so hard and maybe even fasted really hard for it, how would we react when it seems like God doesn't bless us even though we give so much back to Him and we devote so much back to Him?

The all-important question really is, how would we react if God doesn't give us what we want?

The nobleman, he came to Jesus for help but He didn't totally believe until he could see with his own eyes how Jesus had performed this miracle and helped his son.

Could it be that much of our faith today is tied up with signs and wonders?

We're looking for something for Jesus to prove that he really loves us or that he's a good God and many times you look at it in our own personal lives.

You know, Jesus worked with humanity and he did his best to convince them while he walked the earth for 33 and a half years.

His greatest miracles, in fact, were found in the Gospel of John.

When you go through the book of John, this gospel is the gospel with the least amount of miracles.

But the ones that are written there, it's as if they were the greatest of all of them.

Turning water into wine, walking on water, feeding of the 5, 000, which of course is found in all 4 Gospels, but it's a big miracle nonetheless.

And then the healing of a man that was born blind, and the ultimate miracle of miracles, raising Lazarus from the dead, who had been dead for 4 days.

You know, Jesus in the Gospel of John, at least John is trying to write there, that he gave us so much evidence to believe, so many signs and wonders, and yet this nobleman still comes to Jesus with the thought, if Jesus does not heal my son, if he does not work a miracle on my behalf, I am not going to believe.

He might have been at the wedding where the water was turned to wine.

And you know what's amazing is when we contrast it with the story that's earlier in John chapter 4 that we studied last week, It was the woman of Samaria.

Jesus didn't do any miracle except maybe read the thoughts of her heart, but she could have maybe put it down to the fact that someone told him, right?

But look at how this woman reacted in John chapter 4 and verse 28 to 29.

The woman left her water pot and went her way into the city and said to the man, come see a man which told me all things that ever I did.

She believes simply from the conversation that she had with Jesus.

And not just that, the whole town, the whole city believed as well.

Look at this, John 4 41 to 42, and many more believed because of his own word, and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.

This nobleman, this man that came to Jesus asking for healing for his son who was ready to die, he was a Jew.

He was from the nation of Israel, having seen or at least heard of this miracle-working man who walked amongst them.

Yet he refused to believe until Jesus would work a miracle on his behalf.

Except you see signs and wonders, Jesus says, you will not believe.

You know there's a danger, friends, of relying on signs and wonders to uphold and strengthen our faith, especially in these times we are living in.

I want you to look at some texts that talk about miracles and signs and wonders in our last days.

Here in Revelation 16 verse 14 the Bible says, For they are the spirits of devils, working what?

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Jesus’ Encounter with the Noble Man

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