uʍop-ǝpᴉsd∩ – and a Last Resort

Here is a link to last week’s series, uʍop-ǝpᴉsd∩

By the end of last week’s devotion, we had used the word believe fourteen times, with John using it eight times in chapter three alone. (The Bible wasn’t originally divided into chapters and verses.)

Chapter four has one very well-known Bible story, “The Woman at the Well,” but we are going to focus on the story at the end of the chapter.

Just briefly, there are several upside-down elements in the story of the Woman at the Well. I’ll list them before moving on to our look at a nobleman’s story.

The story of the Woman at the Well is upside down in the following ways:

• Jesus was a Jewish man, talking to a woman
• She was a Samaritan.
• She was immoral.
• Even the other women didn’t want to associate with her.
• The water she drew could not save her.
• Jesus didn’t have a bucket to draw the water that He offered.
• Jesus knew her story before she told Him.
• The woman left her water jar to go and share the Gospel with people who disdained her.
• The disciples offered Jesus some food, but He already had food. Just not the kind you can eat.

Read John 4:1-42

By the way, believe is used three times in the story of the Samaritan woman.

Well, let’s transition to the story of the nobleman. He approached Jesus in Cana of Galilee. Does that sound familiar to you?

It should. That is where Jesus performed His first public miracle. Remember? Water was turned to wine.

So, the nobleman would have heard about Jesus.

By the way, he may have served under the rule of Herod Antipas, the killer of John the Baptist. Would Jesus really heal the son of a man connected to an enemy? That would be an upside-down notion, wouldn’t it?

But that’s why Jesus does not make sense to the lost people of the world.

Now, the nobleman did not have faith in Jesus to begin with. But he would have turned to Jesus as a last resort. This nobleman had faith because of a crisis. His son was dying. He knew just enough about Jesus to hope the story at the wedding was true. But that is conditional faith. Isn’t that where many of us begin?

Let’s take a look at the story. See if you can find two mistakes that the nobleman makes about Jesus. Then see if you can tell when his faith of desperation became faith in true believing. I’ll tell you at the end.

 Jesus came therefore again to Cana of Galilee, where he made the water into wine. There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.  When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him and begged him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe.” The nobleman said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and reported, saying “Your child lives!”  So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour,^[a] the fever left him.” So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” He believed, as did his whole house. John 4:46-53(WEB)

Here are the two nobleman’s mistakes.

• The nobleman believed that Jesus would have to be where the boy was to heal him. He also thought that if Jesus was too late and his son died first, there would be no miracle.
  • Do you realize the power in Jesus? The nobleman’s true faith began when Jesus simply said, “Go your way. Your son lives.” 
  • We know that is when his faith began because first of all, the Word says it. “The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.“

• Secondly, we know that’s when he believed because the man did not go straight to Capernaum to check it out.
  • Look back at the story. Do you see? The man did not find out until the next day that his son was alive. Not only that, but his son was also fully recovered. And greater still, the nobleman’s faith grew.
  • Did you see the other blessing that he received. The rest of his family heard this incredible story of Jesus’ great love, and they believed, too.

How great is our God! How lovely are the works of our Savior! What power in the name, Jesus!

Oh, and by the way, this chapter contains a total of six uses of the word believe, including the story of the Woman at the Well.

World English Bible (WEB)

by Public Domain. The name “World English Bible” is trademarked.