How Christ Builds Faith
Download MP3If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to John chapter 4. The text we'll be looking at this morning is also in your worship guide. We've been working through the gospel of John for a while now. We probably have another year or so ahead. John chapter 4, we'll begin reading in verse 39.
Jeffrey Heine:Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there 2 days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the savior of the world.
Jeffrey Heine:After the 2 days, he departed for Galilee. For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet had no honor in his hometown. 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. So he came again to Cana and Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill.
Jeffrey Heine: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. So Jesus said to him, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. The official said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus said to him, Go, your son will live. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and went on his way.
Jeffrey Heine:As he was going down, his servants met him, and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, Yesterday at 7th hour, the fever left him. The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, your son will live. And he himself believed in all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.
Jeffrey Heine:This is the word of the Lord. Pray with me. Our father, we ask that through your Spirit, you would speak to us in this place so that we might come to understand and adore and treasure your Son, Jesus. He is the reason that we are gathered. It's a nice bonus that we could come here and we can see familiar faces and friends and maybe sing some songs we like, but that that is not the reason we have come.
Jeffrey Heine:We have come because of you Jesus. You have saved us. You have bought us at a great price. We wanna live lives that are glorifying to you. And we want at this moment through your spirit to transform us to where we look more like you.
Jeffrey Heine:So I pray that in this moment, my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus, amen. Perhaps you noticed, but 3 times in this story that we just read, you see the word believe. Believe.
Jeffrey Heine:It's exactly what this story is about. It's it's a story about belief, or about faith, and how Christ builds this in us. 500 years ago, when Martin Luther wanted to preach a sermon on faith and how Christ works faith in us, he went to this text. A few 100 years later when Charles Spurgeon wanted to preach on faith and how Christ builds this in us, he went to this text. Modern preachers like John Piper or Tim Keller have all gone to this text to show what is faith and how does Christ build this in us.
Jeffrey Heine:I would encourage you to go to them. There is nothing I could really add to that, to what they've already said, but I'm gonna try. You're here. I mean, we've got some time. The the story begins with with Jesus leaving Samaria after spending a couple of unplanned days there, preaching to all of the people that the woman at the well had brought to Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Verse 41 says that many people came to believe in Jesus's word. Look at verse 41 again. It says, and many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, but we have heard for ourselves. So so they've come to believe because they heard Jesus speak, and this is gonna stand in direct contrast to the story that follows.
Jeffrey Heine:When Jesus goes to his hometown of Galilee. As they're approaching Galilee, at some point in the journey, Jesus pulls his disciples aside and he tells them, he goes, alright, we're going back to my old stomping grounds, but I I just wanna go ahead and warn you about, what we should expect. Because no prophet is welcome in their hometown. And so don't expect a welcome when we go into my hometown. And so after preparing his disciples for the worst, we come to verse 45.
Jeffrey Heine:And it says that, 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 come to the feast. And so Jesus says, Alright guys, we're about to go to my hometown and just remember there's gonna be no honor for me when I get there. And he gets there and they're all welcoming him. Welcome Jesus, come on in.
Jeffrey Heine:And you're just kinda left scratching your heads. Bible's confusing, not sure what to make of it. And what's happening here is they're welcoming him for the wrong reasons. They're greeting him because they saw him as a miracle worker back in Jerusalem a few months earlier. You can actually read of this time in John chapter 2, verse 23.
Jeffrey Heine:Let me read you these words. Says, now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus, on his part, did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and he needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. And so in Jerusalem, Jesus, he's performing all these miracles. People see him doing all these miracles, and so it says they believe, or at least they have some type of belief.
Jeffrey Heine:But Jesus knows them. He knew that they only believe because they like watching miracles, And he says that he would not entrust himself, or in other words, he would not really let them know who he really was. And he moved on. And now it's these same people who are back in Galilee, and they're welcoming him warmly, because once again, they want him to put on a show. I mean here's the hometown boy, he's gone off, made a name for himself, and they're welcoming in like one would welcome in the carnival, or welcome in a traveling magician.
Jeffrey Heine:And they're like applauding him. Here he is hometown hero. Now come on. Put on a show like you've done in other places. Jesus says that is not honoring.
Jeffrey Heine:People who seek me only for miracles are going to miss who I really am. And he's not gonna entrust himself to such people. When Jesus does get to Cana, which is a part of Galilee, a man comes up to him. A man from Capernaum has come up to see him. Capernaum's about 15 to 20 miles away.
Jeffrey Heine:This man was an official. The word is basilica, which means he was a man of the royal court. He was an official of some kind of royal capacity here. We see he's desperate. He's got a son who is on the verge of death, and in his desperation, he somehow hears about Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:A guy could perform miracles, and so he heads off, probably hops on a horse, goes 15 miles as fast as he can to go to Jesus, to plead, to beg, that he could come and heal his son. It's an act of total desperation that really only a parent can understand. I remember when Natalie, our middle child, was about 1 years old. She had a really high fever. It was about 105.
Jeffrey Heine:We didn't know what to do, and then she, she went into a seizure. And there's just such a helpless feeling as a parent. And Lauren is on the phone, 911, and I'm holding Natalie, as she is, she's trembling, and then all of a sudden she just goes still, and I see her eyes roll up, and she stops breathing, and she just turns blue. And I remember that moment first I I prayed. I said, Lord, I know you can.
Jeffrey Heine:I know you're allowed to take her. I know that, but please don't, please don't, please don't. And I remember in that moment thinking, there's nothing I won't do now. I just want to do What what can I do? If somebody said, sell your house, and I'd make your child live it, sell the house.
Jeffrey Heine:Give away every possession. I'd give it all away. There is no distance that I would not travel. There's no amount of money that I would not give to ensure that my child lived. And this parent is going through the same thing.
Jeffrey Heine:Their child is just about to die and there is nothing he won't do. And so so so he just hears about this long shot, this this person Jesus, he's 15 miles away. He gets on a horse, he's like, maybe maybe this will work, maybe this will help. There's So there's a degree of faith there that we see already. It's a desperate faith.
Jeffrey Heine:And so he goes to Jesus. Let's look at Jesus's response. As this desperate father comes to him, we read these words in verse 48. So Jesus said to him, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. Don't you love when like you come to Jesus and he gives you such comforting, comforting words, like in your time of need?
Jeffrey Heine:It's not what you would expect when you come to Jesus hurting, that he would put you off like that. I mean, other places in scripture, you know, you would have desperate people come to Jesus and he would say things like, hey, don't be scared, fear not, or he would say, be well, rise and walk, do not weep. But here, Jesus actually kind of pushes the man away, rebukes him. Has Jesus ever done that to you when you have sought him in maybe a time of desperation? You know, you come to him and he just seemingly gives you the cold shoulder.
Jeffrey Heine:You know you come to say, Jesus my marriage is failing, it's crumbling, it's about to die. And Jesus says, unless you see signs and wonders, you're just not gonna believe in me, are you? So what is Jesus doing here? Why does he at times do that with us? What's happening is he is building faith.
Jeffrey Heine:He's building a real faith in us, a real faith in this man. Now this man, we already said, he had some kind of degree of faith. He's already come to Jesus. He's already heard about Jesus, left his dying son, traveled all this way. But Jesus, he wants to take that little bit of faith and he wants to make it deeper.
Jeffrey Heine:And so he puts them off, says, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. The you there, unless you see, that you is plural. He's saying unless you all So this man comes, but he's addressing all of the Galileans at this point. He's saying, unless you all see signs and wonders, you're not gonna believe, are you? This town's faith was just like this man's.
Jeffrey Heine:It depended on Jesus doing the miraculous. And this type of faith doesn't love God, this type of faith only wants to use God. This is where a lot of religious people's faith rests, in which they see God as nothing more than a useful tool. He's a power source that they could plug into in order to get things going. He's not a person to love or adore.
Jeffrey Heine:As long as Jesus, as long as God is is meeting a person's needs, then you can have my faith, and you can have my worship. But as soon as the visible signs of that are gone, my faith is gone. I would say this is the difference, and it's a huge difference. It's the difference between trying Jesus and trusting in Jesus. I've known many people outside of the Christian faith who have said they've told me, you know what?
Jeffrey Heine:Some point in my life, maybe when something happened, I tried Jesus. I tried Christianity out for a while, but it didn't work. I tried praying to Jesus, but he didn't answer. I I tried trusting in Jesus, but my addictions were still there. I tried being a Christian but my marriage still failed.
Jeffrey Heine:I tried Jesus but I'm as depressed as ever. And so after giving Jesus a good try, they gave up. But hear me, Jesus will not be tried. Jesus will be trusted. He's not like a car that you would take out for a test drive.
Jeffrey Heine:And see if, you know, he performs the way you want him to perform. He he goes where you want him to go. He's not like something that you would buy on approval. You know that you buy something in approval, and then you take it to your house, maybe it's a piece of furniture or something, to see if it really does look good there, and if it looks good there, then you could call back the store and say, okay, I think we will take it. Charge the card.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus can't be bought on approval. He's to be trusted. If Jesus had instantly said yes to this father's request, then this person's faith would have never never grown. This type of faith that this man had, this little bit of faith he had in coming to Jesus was not yet strong enough to understand the cross. But what is it he going to think when Jesus is hanging on a cross dying?
Jeffrey Heine:What's he going to think when Jesus says, if any man wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me? There'll be a road of suffering for those who follow me. If your faith is dependent upon Jesus granting you wishes, like a genie in a bottle, and doing the miraculous on your behalf, then your faith will crumble. Listen. Our our understanding of who Jesus is and our understanding of the love that he has for us does not come in Jesus doing the miraculous on our behalf.
Jeffrey Heine:In Matthew 12, we we read how religious leaders, they came to Jesus just like these people, and they said, hey teacher, we would like you to show us a sign. Jesus, teacher, we would like for you to do a miracle for us in order that we might believe in you. And Jesus responds to them this way. He says, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign. Wow.
Jeffrey Heine:You ask for a sign, you're evil. But no sign will be given to this generation, except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah was in the belly of a fish 3 days 3 nights, so will the son of man be in the heart of the earth 3 days 3 nights. And what Jesus is saying here is you wanna look for a sign, you want a sign, let me tell you the sign. The sign of who I am, and how much I love you is the cross.
Jeffrey Heine:That's that's the only sign. You don't ever have to doubt that I love you or that I'm with you, when you look at the cross. You should never doubt who I am, when you look at my resurrection. So the cross and the resurrection are the sign that we cling to. So if you're here and you're thinking, you know, my life stinks.
Jeffrey Heine:I hate my job. My marriage is in shambles. I've really got no direction of where I'm going. And you've ever thought, God are you there and if you're there, do you love me? The answer is yes.
Jeffrey Heine:Not because of any outward sign you might see, but because of the cross. We look there and we see Jesus's love on display, and we see his resurrection, and we know that he is God. That is the sign that we cling to. So just as Jesus rebuked the religious leaders in Matthew 12 and other places in scripture as well, he rebukes his father here. But I love it, the father's not turned off.
Jeffrey Heine:He he actually asked Jesus again. He says, sir, come down before my child dies. Exact same request. Jesus pushes him off and he goes, alright. Well, I'm going to just ask the same question again.
Jeffrey Heine:Will you come? Jesus pushes him and he says, well, I'm gonna press in. He's not turned off by when Jesus pushes him away. Instead, he presses in. And what we see even from that is faith is growing.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus tells him, go, Your son lives. The words are actually present tense. It's not future. It's not your son will live. It's when Jesus says, your son lives at that moment, 15 miles away, God's creative powerful word works something in that child and that child lives.
Jeffrey Heine:And then Jesus gives the father the chance here to deepen his faith. He gives him the chance because Jesus doesn't give him any visible sign that He's doing the miraculous. He just gives him His word. And will the father believe him in his word without seeing any evidence? And what Jesus is asking this person to do is I want you to believe that I'm more than a prophet.
Jeffrey Heine:I want you to believe that I'm more than just a miracle worker. I want you to believe that I am the one who spoke the universe into existence. And when I speak, creation obeys. And I say, your son lives. Will you trust me in my word?
Jeffrey Heine:And the father, he does. Says that he believed the word that Jesus spoke. He doesn't ask anymore, Jesus just come. I know you said that, but I'd feel a whole lot better, you know, if you actually came and maybe put your hands around maybe oil, you know, whatever you do. I'd feel a little more comfortable with that.
Jeffrey Heine:Instead, he doesn't do that. He just takes Jesus at his word. And we know that he really believes, because he doesn't rush home. He doesn't. This happens at 1 o'clock.
Jeffrey Heine:And so this man could have easily traveled the 15 or so miles he needed to get home, he could have easily walked home before it got dark, but a man of this stature was probably riding a horse, he most certainly was. He could have been home 2, 3 hours. But he waits to the next day in order to come home. I mean, immediately, Jesus says the word, and it puts his heart at such rest. He stays.
Jeffrey Heine:Maybe he just listens to Jesus teach a while longer, but he's certainly he doesn't go like, okay, and then rush home to see what happened. In his mind and in his heart, it has happened and he could just sit and rest there. It's a beautiful picture that all that anxiety that he was carrying just melted away and nothing more than the word of Jesus, despite no visible evidence that that word was true. The next day when he did depart for whom, he ran into some of his servants coming probably apparently to get him. Like why didn't he rush back?
Jeffrey Heine:And so servants go to get him and and he says, your son is well. And he goes, what time did this happen? They're like, it happened at 1 o'clock. And so he knows it happened at the exact time Jesus said, your son lives. I love this that the man is examining his faith now.
Jeffrey Heine:Once again it says that he believed. Now he's already had a little bit of belief at the beginning. After Jesus spoke his word he believed, and now it says he believed again. What we see is he is believing more, and he's believing more. 1st a little faith, and then this trusting faith, and then there is this examining faith.
Jeffrey Heine:I did college ministry for 10 years and I would see college students go to, you know, religion 101, whatever class it was, and they were Christians going into this and all of a sudden their feet got knocked out from underneath them and they would just crumble. And the reason is they probably had some kind of basic little trusting faith, maybe, maybe. But they certainly didn't have an examined faith. That's what this man is doing. He's asking the whys.
Jeffrey Heine:He's asking the whats. He is really studying the faith here. Deepening his faith. And then just like we saw the story of the woman at the well, we see this faith as contagious because when he believes, he takes it to his household and his household believes. And before leaving the story, we we need to examine one one final way I think that Jesus builds faith for us.
Jeffrey Heine:I don't think I've read a commentary or a sermon from any time period that hasn't brought this out. I'm saying it's one of the main points here. And that's that Jesus uses suffering to work faith in us. Without suffering, just think about this story. Is there any way a royal official, likely Roman, living in another city would travel all of this way just to hear a Jewish carpenter from the country.
Jeffrey Heine:There's there's no way that happens apart from God bringing suffering into this man's life. And so this suffering was actually an act of mercy by God. The the rebuke of Jesus was actually an act of mercy by God. You ever hear the saying that faith is a crutch? Ever hear that?
Jeffrey Heine:I hear it all all all the time. Your faith is a crutch. I hear that from either my atheist friends or just from articles or books that I read. But when a person says that faith is a crutch, what they mean is that sometimes people of less intellectual means need faith as a way of propping them up so they could get along in life. But it's but it's for a person who, you know, who really is not all that put together, who who really isn't that intellectual, that they need faith as a prop.
Jeffrey Heine:But if you're strong enough, if you're mentally strong enough, you don't need such a pathetic support for yourself. What I love about this text is that it teaches us, matter of fact, the whole Bible teaches us this, that every person who has ever walked this planet has a crutch. Every person lives out some form of faith. It's just, what are they trusting and what are they leaning on? This man was rich, he was educated, he was of the highest social standing, and the most powerful empire on earth in its day.
Jeffrey Heine:And all it took was a sick child to bring him to his knees. To just knock his legs out from underneath him to which he would crumble. His child was his crutch, and when that was knocked out from underneath him, he collapsed. Everybody has a crutch. It might be, I think for a lot of us, it's having just enough of a financial cushion, where you have just enough in your savings, or in your checking account, just enough of a margin to where things can be comfortable for you.
Jeffrey Heine:But if that were to change, you might just freak out. But so you're always looking at the bank account, thinking, do do I have just enough? Others of you, it might be your physical appearance or your health that is a crutch. You think, you know, as long as you could go to the gym, work out, look good, feel good, feel confident about yourself, that things are alright. You're young and naive, so you believe that.
Jeffrey Heine:I've had 10 surgeries. I can tell you, your faith fails in that if you put your trust in that. I mean, the one thing I can assure you of is every person's body in here will break down. That's a crutch that will not last. For some of you, it might be friendships.
Jeffrey Heine:You need respect. You need to hear affirming words from your friends or or your peers. But then have you noticed that all it takes is one little negative word? Maybe you heard secondhand. Maybe you caught it on somebody's Facebook post before they deleted it.
Jeffrey Heine:And all it took was that one little word and everything comes crumbling down for you. You you you lose sleep over there. You're thinking about it. You be bitterness starts coming into your heart over this. It starts consuming you.
Jeffrey Heine:It was just a little word, but you have leaned on the support of friends or peers for so long that when that's knocked out from you, it's a hard fall. If if you're an intellectual, and you're thinking, Well, I don't really need a crutch because I can just, you know, I'm smart enough to not have it. That's your crutch. I've met a lot of skeptics of Christianity. People are skeptical of everything.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, you met the intellectual type, you're just skeptical of everything. You're like, have you ever been skeptical of your skepticism? You just ask them that, and they look at you like, Have you ever been skeptical about skepticism? You probably should be. And it's like, oh, you know they're just falling down.
Jeffrey Heine:The people who tell you, no I I could tell you that Christianity can't be the only way. There's no such thing as absolute truth. So are you the one who's telling me the one thing that's absolutely true that there's no absolute truth crumbling down? Everybody has a crutch. Everybody has faith in something.
Jeffrey Heine:Even the people are like, I will only believe what's scientifically proven. You're like, Great, can you scientifically prove that you should do that? Crumbles. We're putting faith in something. Jesus says, I want you to put faith on on one thing, a solid rock that no matter what happens, you will not be moved and you will not fall, and that solid rock is me.
Jeffrey Heine:Everything else will crumble. I am the solid rock in which you build your entire life. My word does not change. Kingdoms, come, go. Nations, rise and fall.
Jeffrey Heine:But God's word remains. I think of Paul. Paul was a man who had such great faith, and his faith made him infuriating to those around him. Infuriating if if you were against Paul. And it's because he didn't need a crutch.
Jeffrey Heine:That's what trusting in Jesus does, you don't need a crutch. And so when people would try to hurt him, they're trying to remove a crutch but he doesn't have one. And so they would threaten Paul. We're gonna lock you up. He goes, do whatever you wanna do.
Jeffrey Heine:It doesn't really matter. Jesus is in control of my life. Okay, fine. We're gonna lock you up. Please do.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm going to reach out to all of the imperial guard, every person who's overwatched me in prison. I'm gonna get them to know Jesus. Okay, fine, we'll set you free. Fantastic, I'm gonna tell everybody out there about Jesus. Okay, We're gonna take your life.
Jeffrey Heine:Fantastic. I get to be with Jesus. Do whatever you want. Kill my life. Put me in prison.
Jeffrey Heine:Set me free. It doesn't matter, because my life is built on the solid rock of Christ. It's not built on anything that you could possibly rip out from me, because Jesus is alive and is well, and his word endures forever. Wouldn't you like to have such a rock under you? That is what Jesus is inviting us to.
Jeffrey Heine:Says, why do you place your faith in things that can go like that? Believe in me. Pray with me. Our father, we ask that through your spirit, once again, you would write these words on our heart. We know that you create faith.
Jeffrey Heine:You change our hearts. And so we ask that right now, in this time, through your spirit, you would do that. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
