43After the two days he departed for Galilee. This is the time stamp — and a travel diary. He departed FROM Sychar in Samaria where He had been for two days (verse 40) at the request of the Samaritans. He is leaving Sychar for Galilee — and really, that was His original destination (4:3) when He left Judea and Jerusalem. While Jesus was traveling north to Galilee John told us that Jesus NEEDED to go through Samaria. Samaria was a parenthesis in the ministry of Christ. It is safe to say that His stop in Samaria and His gracious dealings with that lost and lonely woman at the well was a prophetic foreshadowing. He came as Messiah to Israel. His ministry was first and foremost to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt. 10 and Matt 15). Jesus NEEDED to go through Samaria, not just for that single woman — but as a declaration of the SCOPE of His mission! His parenthetical stop in Samaria is a prophetic fore-shadowing that Jesus came to be the Savior of the whole world. Verse 42 we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of” — what? — not Israel — but the world. That's exactly what Paul meant when he said, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. Yes, to the Jew first, but also to the Greek, or Gentile."(Romans 1:16) Jesus is anticipating the unbelief that He is going to face in Galilee. 2 44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) We have a similar saying in contemporary culture — "familiarity breeds contempt." This would be specifically true of His hometown of Nazareth. Luke 4:16-30 16And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 23And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’ What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.” 24And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 25But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” 28When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 30But passing through their midst, he went away. Though He was rejected in Nazareth, without honor in His own town, He would be received in the rest of Galilee. He would spend about 16 months 3 in the region with Capernaum as the base of His ministry. John only gives us two incidents out of it (this one of the nobleman and the five thousand feeding). But the other gospels give us the full panoramic view of that 16- month ministry. It was there that He healed a demon-possessed man who believed in Him. It was there that He healed Peter's mother-in-law and many others who believed in Him. It was there that He healed a leper. It was there that He was received as Messiah. It was there that He healed a paralytic. It was there that He actually healed multitudes in Galilee, a centurion’s servant raised from the dead, Jairus' daughter, and a widow's son, the woman with the issue of blood for 12 years who touched Him, healed a man who could not speak, two blind men. He had a tremendous ministry in Galilee and many believed in Him. So in that sense He showed that that proverb wasn't true. The feeding of the 5,000, the feeding of the 4,000, stilling of the storm on the sea of Galilee, walking on the water. All of that was done in Galilee. But on the other hand, in His own hometown in Nazareth it was true. So His ministry in Galilee was a mixture of faith and unbelief. And so as He was moving into that He was contemplating this.

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. REMEMBER what they would have seen at the Feast of Passover — They would have seen Jesus making a whip and turning over the merchant's tables in the Courts of the Gentiles on the temple mount (John 2:13-27). There Jesus predicted His own miraculous resurrection (John 2:18-22). During His stay in Jerusalem Jesus also performed many other signs that John did not specifically describe (John 2:23-25). 46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. Take a quick look at the last verse of the chapter

4 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. REMEMBER — These miracles were SIGNS that pointed to Jesus as being the Son of God. John 20:30-31 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. This was the SECOND miracle performed by Jesus in Galilee. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. WE DON’T WANT TO MISS THE REMARKABLE CONTRAST between these two miracles. The FIRST takes place at a wedding feast — the brightest of human experiences. Parents beam with joy — the young couple thrilled at the prospect of consummating their love for each other and beginning a lifetime together. The SECOND takes place in the darkest times of human experience — a Dad is watching his son inch closer to death. Again our minds run back to the PROLOGUE of John’s account — “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God…. And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.” God WANTED to come and be with man (Emmanuel which means God With Us). He WANTED to be us when we laugh and are happy. But not just in the best of times. He WANTED to be with us in the darkest and most desperate of times.

QUOTE: Alexander Maclaren — Exposition of the Holy Scriptures But life has deeper things in it than gladness, and a Savior who preferred the house of feasting to the house of mourning would be no Savior for us. There was an official whose son was ill 5 official = basilikos – A royal officer; courtier of the king; from the root word which means king QUOTE: Barclay It could even mean that he was a petty king; but it is used for a royal official and he was a man of high standing at the court of Herod. The Herod mentioned here is Herod Antipas — or “the Tetrarch”

INSIGHT: There are FOUR Herod’s in the New Testament. 1.) Herod the Great - Died at about the time of the birth of Jesus. Builder of almost all of the major archaeological sights you will see in Israel. Built the harbor at Caesarea on the Mediteranean. He is the one who ordered the death of all of the babies in Bethlehem at the birth of Jesus in an attempt to kill Jesus. 2.)Herod Antipas - The son of Herod the Great. He was ruling in Tiberius in the time of Jesus and ordered the death of John the Baptist. Became friends with Pilate in the context of condemning Jesus to death. 3.) He had a son Herod Agrippa the First. He ordered the death of James the brother of John. When he saw that it pleased the Jews he ordered the arrest of Peter. The angel of the Lord came to free Peter at night. He came to Caesarea and at that time the men of Tyre and Sidon were having a dispute – they came to Agrippa to settle it. According to Josephus they were meeting in an arena and he was wearing a silver suit and said that in the sunlight it was glittering and shining. The men wanted Agrippa’s favor because they depended upon him for subsidies. As he was speaking they cried out: Acts 12:20-23 “This is the voice of a god not of a man. And an angel of the Lord smote him with maggots and he died because he did not give glory to God.” 4.) He had a son Herod Agrippa the Second — He is the one before whom Paul made his defense in Acts 26. 6 This man would have been in the court of the son of Herod the Great. We might call him “the king’s man.” It is interesting that we read in Acts 13:1 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. A number of commentators believe this is very likely the basilikos of John 4. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. DON’T MISS THIS — Here is a man of importance in the king’s court. He was the King’s man. No doubt he’s influential. No doubt he’s wealthy. By man’s standards, he’s got everything going for him —position, power and wealth, along with everything those things bring. This mans little boy is sick and near death. Parents — you know how tortuous it is to even think of your children being in such a state — you would be so utterly desperate — as no doubt he was. DON’T MISS THIS — He ”heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee.” Someone had told the king’s man about Jesus, and that Jesus was in Cana of Galilee. He goes to Jesus. That’s 20 miles as the crow flies, no doubt 25 miles over land. Much of it is uphill. Capernaum is 600 ft. below sea level and Cana is on a higher elevation. We can only imagine what was running through his head for the duration of that walk. Here is “the king’s man” — a man of title — traveling 25 miles to beg a favor from a village carpenter. Begging is not a position he’s used to being in. He’s used to giving orders — now he begs this carpenter to come back to Capernaum to heal his dying son.

When you are faced with death — you discover that pride isn’t worth holding on to. When you are faced with death — you can actually consider turning to Jesus, even if the rest of your world thinks you’re crazy. 7 THERE ARE SEVERAL THINGS FOR US HERE — 1.) God is more interested in your eternal well being than your

temporal comfort. QUOTE: Infirmity often draws people to Christ faster than prosperity does! QUOTE: J.C. Ryle — Expository Thought on the Gospel of John Affliction is one of God's medicines. By it He often teaches lessons which would be learned in no other way. By it He often draws souls away from sin and the world, which would otherwise have perished everlastingly. Health is a great blessing, but sanctified disease is a greater. Prosperity and worldly comfort, are what all naturally desire; but losses and crosses are far better for us, if they lead us to Christ. There are thousands who can look back in hindsight and agree with David — and the nobleman of John 4 — "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." (Psalm. 119:71.) This man would have never come to Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth, unless his son’s illness had humbled him. Men and women in this room have come to Jesus because they were faced with: A terminal illness — A terminal marriage EXAMPLE: Eldon Starkey — One of the most wonderful, godly men I have ever known came to Jesus after the doctors opened him up, and saw his abdomen filled with cancer, and closed him up again. When he came out of the anesthesia they told him that he had stage 4 inoperable cancer. He asked “What do we do now?” They said – “Get your affairs in order, there’s nothing we can do.” While recovering from surgery he began to listen to Christian radio – one of the programs he listened to was “Through the Word”. He ended up giving his life to Jesus! Jesus gave him 5 more years before taking Eldon to heaven — He made a radical impact on his peers living sold out for Jesus. He would have NEVER gone begging to the carpenter had it not been for a terminal illness. 2.) Material prosperity can’t insulate us from suffering and death. 8 Like any one in this room — this man would have brought all of his influence to bear on saving the life of his son. He would have had access to the very best of physicians in the court of the king. Capernaum enjoyed access to the latest and greatest of everything for a couple of reasons. There was a certain measure of wealth because of the tax offices located there — and it was also part of the trade route from Damascus as it was situated near the Via Mares — the road to the Sea. Caravans passed by regularly — bringing with them the latest and greatest of everything. Add to that the simple fact that economic prosperity attracts the best of every kind of goods and services — including physicians and medicines. But this man has discovered that none of his worldly assets or associations can save his son; not even the king. His son’s condition worsened — he was at the point of death. Conventional wisdom says that money is the great panacea — the cure all for every woe known to man. We are led to believe that people of wealth have no problems — and if they do — they can remedy them all by way of their wealth. That this is widely believed can be seen in the way politicians try to create class envy — pitting the needs of the lower income groups against the lack of need in the middle and upper income groups. Material wealth can lift NO ONE beyond the reach of trouble. It might be able to keep you out debt and shut out debt and a wardrobe of rags — but it cannot shut out heartache, disease, and death. QUOTE: Silks and satins often cover very heavy hearts. \ 1 Timothy 6:17-19 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. 3.) Youth provides no immunity from sickness and death.

When you are young, death is the FARTHEST thing from your mind. When you are old it is UNTHINKABLE that your children will die before you. But here in John 4 we see the natural order of things 9 inverted. The child draws near to the grave before the parent, and not the parent before the child. In the face of reality we are so quick to ignore plain facts — and to speak and act as if no one ever died when in their youth. Yet there are countless grave-stones that tell us otherwise. The first grave that ever was dug on this earth, was that of a young man. The first person who ever died, was not a father but a son. In the Old Testament we are told that Aaron lost two sons in one day. David, the man after God's own heart, lived long enough to see three

children buried. Job was deprived of all his children in one day. These things were carefully recorded for our learning. For those of you that are young — do not take for granted the very breath that you are taking. Do not take for granted that you will have the opportunity to tell your peers about Jesus tomorrow. For those that are parents or grandparents — thank God for the health of your children and grandchildren. Be on your knees for them that they would know Jesus in their youth!

QUOTE: J. C. Ryle He that is wise, will never consider long life as a certainty. We never know what a day may bring forth. The strongest and fairest are often cut down and hurried away in a few hours, while the old and feeble linger on for many years. The only true wisdom is to be always prepared to meet God, to put nothing off which concerns eternity, and to live like men ready to depart at any moment. So living, it matters little whether we die young or old. Joined to the Lord Jesus, we are safe in any event. He went to him and asked him Paraphrase — “He kept on begging Him over and over”. 48So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” There are a number of things for us to consider here — 10 1.) YOU is in the plural. Students of the Bible differ on whether Jesus was speaking to the Galileans at large — excluding the man — or if he was including the man with the crowd. 2.) Regardless of the object of His remark — Jesus puts the desperate man on hold to make the remark. As far as this man is concerned — there is not a moment to waste. His son is 20 miles away in Capernaum. Jesus MUST move immediately if his son is going to be healed. It would be easy to think Jesus was in the moment oddly unfeeling — even cold and disinterested. We can easily imagine the desperate dad thinking to himself — “What does that to do with me and my dying boy?” Unbeknownst to the desperate dad — It had EVERYTHING to do with him and his dying son! There were 2 other notable delays in the face of fatal illness during the ministry of Jesus. In John 11, Mary and Martha sent desperate word to Jesus from Bethany concerning their brother Lazarus — “Lazarus, whom you love, is sick.” Yet Jesus waited two days before leaving for Bethany. In Mark 5 and Luke 8 we are told that later, in Capernaum, the ruler of the synagogue came to Jesus — much like this noble man. His 12 year-old daughter was dying. While Jairus was hurrying Jesus to his home, Jesus STOPS along the way to heal a woman who had been suffering from an issue of blood for 12 years. After He healed her of her hemorrhage he stopped and said — “Daughter, be of good cheer, your faith has made you whole.” Can’t you just imagine Jairus saying — “What about MY daughter? She’s dying!” Just like those other delays — Jesus puts aside the apparently pressing and urgent need in order to deal with a far deeper, more pressing one. Yes — Jesus did CARE about the sick child. Yes — Jesus WOULD heal the boy. It was within the scope of His divine power to do it at any moment. But the GREAT need of the moment was the faith of this man and this crowd. The Bible says that faith is ESSENTIAL to having a right relationship with God. Hebrews 11:6- 6And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2Through him we have also obtained 11 access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 1:17 as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Because the Bible says that faith is ESSENTIAL to having a right relationship with God — this man and those around him needed to learn about the ESSENCE of Faith. Because of this painful pause — this noble man will so clearly grasp the essence of faith that in the end of the account we see this man become the exact opposite of the desperate — frantic —and hurried human we find at the beginning. We need to know that Jesus is NEVER in a HURRY — and He is NEVER LATE. His delays might be painful, but — Isaiah 30:18 KJV And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: 3.) “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” — Was not so much a rebuke as a lament! Think about this - Where had Jesus just been? Samaria. Who were the people that came to believe that He is the “savior of the whole world”? The Samaritans — who in the eyes of the Jews were the most contemptible people in all Israel. Yet Jesus found in THAT PLACE and in THOSE PEOPLE a faith that needed no miracles. They did not embrace Jesus as Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world because He was a wonder-worker. Jesus told them they were sinners and that He was the Savior. They embraced Jesus and believed with their hearts on Jesus because of HIS WORD! His words touched their hearts. BY CONTRAST — John points out that Jesus was not received — even as a prophet — in His home town of Nazareth. At the close of Chapter 2 John says that many believed in Jesus while He was in Jerusalem on the basis of His miracles. Jesus knew what was in their hearts — and didn’t believe in their professed belief (John 2:23-25). Even Nicodemus thought Jesus to be sent from God because of the miracles Jesus performed. THAT is what Jesus encountered before leaving Jerusalem and traveling through Samaria. 12 It is quite possible that some of those described at the close of John 2 were the ones gladly receiving Jesus in this chapter. NOW — Jesus is no sooner back into Jewish territory and he is met with the same “show us a miracle” attitude that He left days earlier in Jerusalem. John declared in Chapter 1 — we beheld His glory, as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. They had no eyes for the beauty and grace of Jesus. They had no ears for the truth and power of His Word. But if Jesus performed a miracle they would have run after Him with a faith that Jesus saw as worthless! THAT grieved Jesus! HUGE CONCEPT — Signs and wonders can be used by God to OPEN hearts to His Word. Signs and wonders can be used by God to CONFIRM His Word to the hearts of men and women. But they can also have no effect on a person. Paul tells us that Satan can also use lying signs and wonders (2Thessalonians 2:9). In and of themselves, signs and wonders cannot change the heart. Israel saw incredible signs — the plagues upon Egypt — the parting of the Red Sea — manna from heaven — water from a rock — at Mount Sinai they even heard the very voice of God (Exodus 19:16- 20:1). Yet a short time later they worshipped a gold calf (Exodus 32:1-6). God describes those who witnessed such incredible, and numerous miracles as having an “evil heart of unbelief.”(Hebrews 3) 49The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my childdies.” Jesus had a way of making sure that a person was in serious about Him. He did so with a Syro-Phoenician woman (Matt. 15:21-28). Had this man turned away in anger or frustration — if he had been too proud to accept a rebuke — if he had given up — he would have proved that his faith was not real. This man had a flawed — but genuine faith. The fact that he asked

a second time implies that he understood the rebuke of Jesus — and showed that he was willing to trust in, clinging to, relying upon Jesus WE MUST SEE THIS — This man comes to Jesus — driven by desperation. He knows his son is dying of some illness that has proven incurable. He knows that king Herod has no answer. He has heard that a carpenter from Nazareth has been performing mighty signs and miracles. THAT is all he knows. THAT is all the faith he possesses. In a pause that

13 must have seemed forever, Jesus addresses the flaw of the “show-me-amiracle” kind of faith. The purpose of the painful delay was to bring this man — and those around him — to understand the ESSENCE OF FAITH. 50Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” Why didn’t Jesus go with him? We can get the full force of what Jesus is doing in the heart of this man if we contrast this noble man with a Centurion of Capernaum whose servant was dying. Matthew 8:5-10 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6“Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. Jesus says “I will come” and the centurion says — You don’t even have to be there — Your Word is powerful to save my servant. This noble man had — UP TO THIS MOMENT — repeatedly begged Jesus to ‘Come,’ because it has never entered his mind that Jesus could do anything unless He stood by his son’s bed like a doctor. Up to this moment — his trust in Jesus craved the assurance of something outward, something physical, something emotional. That kind of faith is common to all of us. QUOTE: F.B. Meyer We are brave at swimming so long as we are in our depth. We are grand soldiers so long as we stay within the castle enclosure. We believe so long as we can see or feel. Jesus promised healing for the little boy — but He refused to go to Capernaum with the dad. The dad was going to have to believe that Jesus was the Son of God whose very Word was powerful to heal —whose very Word was to be trusted.

14 All Jesus gave him to trust in was His Word. Real faith is simply that — taking Jesus at His word. At THAT moment the man got it! And at THAT moment the man was exercising a faith that those in that crowd did not possess. His was a faith that lived and breathed without a sign — that found its essence in THE WORD of Jesus.

The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. Faith is not a sense, nor sight, nor reason. Biblical faith is simply taking God at His word. The very essence of faith is that we believe that what Jesus says is true. If Jesus says a thing, it is not a case of "It may be true"; it is a case of "It must be true." It must be true because it was spoken by Jesus who is full of grace and truth….. Is the way the truth and the life. So often we have a kind of vague hoping and wishing that the promises of Jesus might be true. The only way really to enter into them is to believe in them with the clutching intensity of a drowning man. This guy leaves CLUTCHING the WORD of Jesus — “Your son WILL live!” 51As he was going down, To get from Cana to Capernaum, it is necessary to go eastward across the hills of Galilee and then down to the Sea of Galilee. his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. told him — the tense of the verb indicates continual action. Apparently the servants were jumping up and down with joy —repeating over and over, “your son’s alive...he’s living...he’s well!” 15 52So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” Yesterday at the seventh hour = 1:00 in the afternoon the day before. On the face of how anxious the noble man was when he first came to Jesus it would seem logical that he would have been in a hurry to get home. Cana is around 25 miles from Capernaum — could have been traveled in 5-6 hours if a man in a hurry. He could have been home by dark. It would appear that the noble man stayed the night in Cana. He left Jesus’ presence absolutely assured that His words formed a promise. And in that promise

he rested. HOW DIFFERENT the pace of the return trip was in contrast to the breathless rush up to Cana Isaiah 28:16 “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’ Prior to the life-threatening illness of his son this man had NO foundation for his life. He had built a great life as man might measure it. He was “the king’s man.” He was a man of power, influence and wealth — but none of those things held when his son was about to die. Someone told him about the carpenter of Nazareth who had performed miracles in Judea and had turned water to wine in Cana. He had enough faith to make a panic driven all out 25mile trip to BEG a carpenter to heal his son. NOW — his life is built upon the rock of Jesus Christ and His Word! THAT is why he could spend the night in Cana before traveling to see his son. QUOTE: George Mueller The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety. 53The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” 16 Jesus SPOKE and the cure was done. Christ commanded, and the deadly disease was removed. John has already told us — 1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through him. The Book of Genesis tells us HOW Jesus created —“And God said….” The Book of Hebrews tells us HOW the created universe is held together — “by the Word of His power.” When Jesus spoke those words — “You son will live” — the same power that created the universe and upholds the universe went forth to heal that little boy. What Christ has said — He is able to do. He will NEVER fail to make good on His promises. When Jesus said that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, That whosoever would believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life — count on it! When Jesus said, "Him that comes to me, I will in no wise cast out" — count on it! HUGE — In the things of this world, we say that seeing is believing. But in the things of the Gospel, believing is as good as seeing. EXAMPLE: Pastor Chuck’s story of friend’s phone call promising to send a check. He was shouting and dancing with his wife. The Lord spoke to his heart and said — How do you know he’ll send it? Well, Lord, he’s my friend, he’s a man of integrity. Why won’t you trust MY Word, My promises? Why weren’t you dancing and rejoicing when you read the promises in My Word? And he himself believed, and all his household. 54This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. REMEMBER how all of this began! All of this hinged upon the son's sickness. If the nobleman's son had never been ill, his father might have lived and died in his sins!

CLOSING QUESTIONS: Where is your faith? Better than that — let me ask you this: where is your unbelief? What 17 does your unbelief demand? Does your unbelief demand miracles? You just saw one, what else do you need? Does your unbelief demand to hear the voice of God? Many people say — “If I could only hear the voice of God— THEN I would believe.” You just heard the voice of God in John 4. And you can hear Him speak every time you open the pages of the Bible and read. Whatever your unbelief demands, it's here in His Word — Whatever your unbelief demands, Jesus meets it.