How to Lose Honour: Take Jesus at His Word

How to Lose Honour: Take Jesus at His Word
John 4:43-54

Introduction:
I want to start my sermon this morning with four propositions:

1) My first proposition is this: Jesus considered his missionary work to be a prophetic work- he was a prophet (Matt 4:24; Lk 13:33; 24:19).

2) Second: Jesus the prophet left a place of honor, not so that he could receive more honor, but to be dishonored; to be despised and rejected of men. Let me explain (read vv. 43-44).

So Jesus the prophet chose dishonour for himself- that is he chose to be dishonoured by men. This is a consistent pattern in the life and ministry of Jesus. Remember John 1:1, “in the beginning was the Word, the word was God…” or as Paul writes:
…being in the form of God, [Jesus nevertheless] did not consider it robbery to be equal with God [no one but God can make himself equal with God], but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross (Phil 2:6-8).

The incarnation is the definitive humiliation of Jesus- ‘the Word having become flesh and dwelling among us’ (Jn 1:14)- and it resonates in every choice he made, every deed he did, every word he spoke and every miracle he performed. His humiliation was holistic.

3) My third proposition is that all missionary work is prophetic ministry. It is prophetic because missionaries forthtell the message of God to the nations- just as the prophets of old spoke God’s message to the nation Israel.

(Now, I’ve been accused of some strange and absurd things in the ministry. Once I was accused of being in it for the money. I have also been accused of teaching a prosperity gospel. That’s okay, Paul was accused of teaching libertinism, so why shouldn’t I also be incorrectly interpreted.

(But before you accuse me of being a closet charismatic, please don’t hear me as saying that I believe in a prophetic ministry in which God is revealing anything new. The gospel is the fullness of the revelation of God and contains everything that we need for life and Godliness.

(But I do believe [along with the Puritans] that missionaries, like preachers, speak a prophetic message when they preach the gospel. And the gospel is a message that has the miracle working power of securing faith in the lives of sinners.

(I also believe that missionaries can pray for miracles, healings, resurrections and exorcisms etc.- and that God can and does answer those prayers today. Miracles are extraordinary events; not meant for believers, but unbelievers. So, if you must label me, would rather you call me a continuationist not a charismatic because I believe it is unbiblical to put God into a box and say He no longer performs miracles or speaks through donkeys).

4) With that in mind, my fourth and final proposition applies to us the other three propositions along with the implications of Jesus’ proverb: Missionaries who fulfill the prophetic role to preach the Word of God, whether in their homeland or a foreign nation, can expect to experience rejection and suffering when their primary activity to boldly and unashamedly proclaim the Word of Jesus.

Conversely, when they neglect the word and focus on the signs, they need not fear dishonour and rejection. Therefore, those ministries which do not experience some form of dishonour are likely ministries that are not dependant upon the preaching of the Word for their success.

In other words, signs and wonders will not result in persecution. The social gospel will not result in rejection from the host culture. A health and wealth gospel does not produce dishonour from your people because it tells them what they want to hear- it lacks the offence of the gospel and therefore it lacks the fruit of true salvations!

Let’s see if we can verify these propositions of mine as we look at Jesus’ return to his homeland after having gained much fame abroad. Read vv. 45 to 54

I. At first glance, my proposition (and Jesus’ proverb) seems to unfold right here at verse 45; “when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him.” So much for being rejected!

But here are two reasons why the way in which the Galileans received Jesus validates his proverb and my proposition: First, John intentionally uses the Greek word ‘edexanto’ which means to receive; but this is not the same Greek word that he used in 1:12, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.”

What John wants us to see by using the synonym is that the Galileans received Jesus but not in the saving way that he talks about in 1:12. Actually, all they did was to welcome him and this welcome will be a short lived one. Look what happens when he gets to Nazareth (Read Luke 4:1ff).

These Galileans are pictured negatively in comparison to the Samaritans who also received Jesus, but in a John 1:12 way.

My second reason for why v. 45 does not contradict Jesus proverb and my proposition is found in the second part of that verse: they received, or welcomed him, “having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast”

This is John’s whole point! What he’s implying is that signs and wonders are not a good enough reason for following Jesus. These people were like the crowds everywhere, who followed Jesus because of the miracles, but ditched him when his teachings came too close to home.

He is also saying that there are many people who appear to accept Jesus, but for the wrong motives and have not truly believed in a saving way. They receive Christ in a pseudo manner, but not in a saving way because they do not have the eyes to see and the ears to hear the Word of Christ.
Jesus describes these false converts in the parable of the sower. They are the seed that falls and the shallow ground and they receive it with Joy, but when the cares of this world and the tribulations of being a believer come, they quickly fall away.

The point is that signs and wonders are meant to validate the message, they are not the message and believers should not seek signs (pray for miracles all you want, but as you mature in Christ you may actually see less of them because your faith is decreasingly dependant upon physical evidence as you increasingly live by fait and not by sight).

Sign seeking is as good as to telling God you need proof of His existence and power while at the same time claiming to be a believer. Christians are to live by faith and not by site- but it is a wicked and perverse generation seeks a sign and that is what the Galileans were.

II. The Second Miracle in Cana (46-54)
Notice in verse 46, John makes the point that this is the same place where Jesus turned water into wine. It is interesting to note the many parallels between the miracle that Jesus is about to perform and the miracle that he performed in 2:1ff.

For instance, both stories begin on the third day, they occur in Cana and involve either his mother, or the nobleman, coming an pleading for a miracle from him as well as his rebuke and subsequent willingness to perform the miracle. Finally there is the profession of faith that results from the miracle, either with the disciples at the wedding, or the nobleman in this case.
John ignores much of Jesus’ Galilean ministry of Jesus, but he includes these two events in Cana for a reason. The two miracles are like book ends for the whole section that begins in ch. 2 and includes the clearing of the temple, the discourse with Nichodemus, the testimony of the John the Baptist and the revival in Samaria. It is signaling a transition in Jesus’ ministry and perhaps the expansion of his message.

In the first miracle, the disciples are no better then the Galileans because they believe based on the miracle, but they are not yet converted. But the nobleman’s faith is an accelerated form of the disciples’ conversion. The Nobleman is like the Galileans and the disciples; he comes believing in Jesus because of the signs.

You know if I were to take a poll here this morning and ask how strong your faith was, I bet most people would say that it is pretty strong. In fact, on a scale of 1 to 10, I would say that my faith right now is probably a 9. After all, what concerns do I have? I am healthy, my family is healthy, our bills are paid, we have food. It’s pretty easy to have faith in times like that.

I read this week in the Voice of the Martyrs magazine about a pastor in India who was asked by a couple of militant Hindus for some medicine to help a sick relative. Without a thought for his own safety, this pastor went with the men to help administer the medicine. His wife and young daughter never saw him again. When his body turned up at the morgue a few weeks later, his wife could not identify him because his face had been peeled away by acid and his body had been dismembered.

I wonder what his wife’s faith is like today? What if I were her? Left with no source of income, abandoned by the other believers because of fear. No way of feeding my daughter and surrounded by hostile Hindus.

This nobleman’s faith was week, like that of the disciples. I am sure he tried everything to help his son and now he had one last shot at saving his young son. He had enough faith to travel from Capernaum to ask Jesus to come back with him. But his faith was about to grow.

v. 49 after Jesus’ rebuke, the man pleads with Jesus. He was a nobleman, he could have responded angrily to Jesus’ rebuke and reminded Jesus of his place; but the nobleman humbles himself further in his desperation pleading, “Sir, please come down to Capernaum” as though Jesus could not heal the boy where he was.

Jesus had mercy on the man, and he healed the boy, “Go your way, your son lives.” And at that very moment, water was turned into wine, the wind blew where it willed and streams of living water flowed from this nobleman. He believed, not the sign, but the word of Jesus.

So strong had the nobleman’s faith become that this once frantic and desperate man stayed the night in Cana, likely listening to more of the teaching of Jesus. He could have returned that very day and been home in time to verify Jesus’ promise, but his faith was so strong that he waited until the next day.

It’s like he became so radically born again that he no longer needed the miracle- he knew that whether his son lived or died, the boy was safe in the arms of Jesus. That’s what Paul must have been talking about when he described the kind of peace that surpasses all understanding and guards our hearts when we present our needs to Christ.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:6-7)

So the next morning the man is traveling home at such a leisurely pace that his servants come out to meet him and to tell him the good news, “Your son lives,” just as Jesus had promised. And, unlike the Galileans who only believed the signs, this nobleman and his entire household believed. They received Jesus in a ch. 1:12 way and became children of God.

Conclusion:
I want to leave you with a question this morning: How have you received Jesus? Have you received him in a John 1:12 way and become a child of God? Or, have you received him because of the things, the signs?

Perhaps one way of knowing is by the level of dishonour you have received.

If your faith is like those Galileans and that Nobleman, maybe it can increase. All you have to do is believe him at his word. Then you will see greater things, even the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Jesus.