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Saturday, April 11, 2015

John 4: 43-54 Sunday school


John 4: 43-54 Sunday school

Opening quote – “My graces languish, my corruptions rage, my faith is weak, my devotion is cold, yet all of these are reasons why His healing hand should be laid upon me.”     C. H. Spurgeon.  

Jesus Heals an Official's Son – have someone else read

43 After the two days he departed for Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 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.
46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. 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. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you[c] see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants[d] met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 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. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

Have someone pray …
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            Mine - After 2 days Jesus left there & went to Galilee, as Jesus says a prophet has no honor in his own country.  The Father was a nobleman & his son was sick, knocking on death’s door.  His honors & titles were useless against this enemy & provided no security against his son’s impending death.  Our passage today shows us that even great men must humble themselves before Christ, and teaches us perseverance: that the official doesn’t stop from his request until he prevails.  His request shows 3 things: 1st his concern for his son, 2nd his inability to save his son himself & 3rd his faith in the power of Christ to do what he says he can do.  This should give us some sense of comfort as well that we may call on God through he is not visibly present here & now just like Christ was not visibly present where the son was & yet distance & time, these are no hindrance to the mercy & power of our Lord to heal.  The father left trusting Christ & this part is easy to overlook but the passage does not imply he rushed home as you think he would to his dying son.  He merely “went on his way”, being satisfied, he did not hurry home that night, but returned as one easy in his own mind.  His servants met him on the road with the news of the child’s recovery, just like the Good News (the Gospel) makes it’s way to those its intended for.

            When we are diligent in comparing Christ’s words with his works, we are confirmed in our faith of him.  And this is the bigger miracle than the healing, the father was not content in his “good luck” at finding a healer or even his healed son but came to realize the fullness of who Christ was & that brought both him & his family to saving faith.  This miracle made Jesus dear to the Nobleman’s family.  Even today the knowledge of Christ spreads through families and gives health & salvation for their souls. 

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            Mine - So what we are going to look at today is the healings & miracles of Jesus, what was their point, why did they happen, how did they happen & to whom did they happen? Now I’m going to ask these questions of you guys & don’t limit yourself to just this passage think about all the stories of healings & miracles in the Bible. Theologically we often think of Jesus’ healings in 3 different forms, can you guess what they are?  The answers are: 1 - cures from physical ailments, 2 – exorcisms or freedom from demon oppression & 3 – complete resurrections.

How about why did Jesus heal people? There are several reasons: 1 – J had power & authority to do so *Miracles flowed from Jesus like heat from the sun, wetness from a waterfall or dry winds from a desert, 2 – J had compassion equal to his power, *He healed people everywhere he went because he felt their pain, 3 – as a symbol of forgiveness *He guaranteed the ultimate glory of the human body in His resurrection but forecasted it to us in healing the bodies of others,  4- symbolized his power over Satan *Satan hates God so compulsively, but his only recourse is to harm the humanity made in His image,  5 – as proof that he was the Christ of God *In Christ’s works lurked evidence that God Almighty lived in human form & loved the humanity created in His image.

Who did Jesus heal? Give me some examples of the types of people Jesus healed? Both Jew & Gentile, both those near & those far away.

How did Jesus heal? Give me some examples of ways in which he healed people? Jesus healed in various ways, both by touch & by word.

Here’s one that I heard a lot as a kid, did Jesus & the Apostles heal only those of faith? No, both ex. Lazarus didn’t “have faith” that he’d be made well yet Jesus healed him, the paralytic man lowered from the rooftop into the room Jesus was teaching in, Jesus said it was the friends that had faith not the paralytic man.

Did Jesus & the apostles heal everyone without exception? No ex. Jesus at the pool of Bethesda, he only healed 1 of the dozens sick or injured around the pool. Apostle Paul mentions a few in his letters that were sick & not miraculously healed. Paul recommends wine to young pastor Timothy for medicinal purposes, he refers to Trophemus who was too sick to go on a missions trip & Epaphroditus who was so sick he almost died & even Paul himself who God did not heal his “thorn in the flesh.” Why do you think God doesn’t heal everyone?

            Going back to our passage…. When he went to Galilee they received him, they welcomed him having heard of his deeds in Jerusalem.  Jesus left Judea for Galilee because he had encountered serious hostility from officials in Jerusalem in fact many welcomed him as long as he was merely performing miracles…call it the Obamacare of 1st century.  But ultimately they gave him no real honor as a teacher or trusted in him as their Messiah.
           
            The nobleman sought Christ out initially for his power & gifts.  Today likewise faith healers pack out stadiums with many people with little concern for the gospel of grace or salvation but are merely hopeless with chronic & often-incurable diseases, desperate with afflictions, they pursue Him for the benefit they could derive from Him without any sense of repentance or any willingness to receive Him as their savior.

            The nobleman was a man of wealth & status, a man capable of consulting the best physicians of his day, but ultimately he had to come to Jesus.  He came with an earthly need & Jesus sent him home with a Heavenly answer of who Jesus really was.  It was a stern rebuke, “unless you see signs & wonders, you wont believe.”

            But the Nobleman did not argue theology with Jesus but instead pleaded, “Come down before my child dies!”  I wish I knew how Jesus said what he did or how the official believed Jesus without dragging Christ home to heal his son but the passage says he did believe Jesus.  Despite his desperation, he heard the promise of Christ & he believed it.  He trusted the word of Christ.  He didn’t say skeptically, “I’ll go home & see if it’s true.”  Rather he grew calm, stopped pleading & departed.

            And remember when he made it near home & his servants desperate to reassure him said, “Your son lives!”  Now you & I may have cried for joy, or leap in the air, instead the nobleman asks a question…about when it happened & he knew it was when Jesus said it would be done and with that he believed & his whole HH.  This was a glimpse of the person of Christ, the person who by His command, by His word brings life out of death, safety out of danger, healing out of disease, & salvation out of lost-ness.

            So to close the ultimate healing a Christian should expect is twofold: 1st most importantly its from the sickness of sin (over mere physical sickness) but 2 that ultimate physical healing will not come until the resurrection of the dead, along with sinlessness & glorified bodies in the new heaves & new earth in the paradise to come.  

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