Thank you for making time for leading the way with pastor and International Bible teacher Dr. Michael Yusef.
I think we can all agree that the times in life when things go completely sideways, especially when it comes to our families, well those are the times when our faith is tested, proven, and grows the most. In a moment Dr. Yusef takes you to a very emotional scene in the pages of John chapter 4. A man is seeking time with Jesus, having heard the miracles he performed in the region. Jesus could be his last hope to save his dying son. You'll join the emotional scene when Jesus responds to the tearful pleas of this nobleman to heal his dying son. And Jesus takes this father from just a flickering faith, fueled only by hope and pain, into a blazing faith, leaning completely into the healing that Jesus offers to both body and soul.
So join me now in listening as Dr. Michael Yusef begins this episode of Leading the Way Audio. Today we come to the second simayon or the evidence of the exclusivity of Jesus. In the backdrop of this second sign, the second evidence, is that we see Jesus the encourager, Jesus the encourager, uses blunt confrontational language. And our Lord Jesus often does that. That's because he loves us, and because he loves his people enough to give them what they truly need.
Not what they think they need, but what they truly need. And that is to develop a deeper faith, to build up not only a saving faith, but living faith, daily faith, walking in faith. So turn with me please to the Gospel of John chapter 4, beginning at verse 43 all the way to 54. Now in context, Jesus and his disciples just came off of an enormous spiritual revival. It really was, and we read about it in the first few verses of chapter 4.
Huge revival. They just experienced an amazing spiritual awakening taking place in a Samaritan village. That revival was ignited by the conversion of the most unlikely person, a woman whom he met an encounter at the well. This great awakening came as a result of her testimony.
Come and see someone who told me everything about my life. After his ministry in this foreign land Samaria, and it's a foreign land as far as the Jews were concerned, he returns to his homeland of Galilee, his home country, his home region. And in chapter 4 verse 45 of John's Gospel, Jesus arrives to Galilee and the Galileans welcome him. Now don't miss this because that is not usual, and that is what prompted Jesus to say a prophet is not without honor in his own country. You say they welcomed him? Yeah, but if you remember from Luke chapter 4, when Jesus went to his home synagogue in Nazareth, and he told them and read from the book of Isaiah, and he said today this is fulfilled in your ears. And then he went on declaring that he is not just the Savior of Israel, he's the Savior of the world.
And what did they want to do? All the Galileans, his home country people, they dragged him all the way to the high precipice, and deep deep deep ravine, they want to push him down and kill him. What do you mean your Savior of the world? We thought you're just our Savior. The Messiah is supposed to be just ours.
And so they rejected him. And so he goes to Jerusalem, and during Passover some of the Galileans who were in Jerusalem watched what Jesus did on that first Passover where he cleansed the temple and performed other miracles. They came home and they said guys, the one we're rejecting, he is the Messiah. We saw his power, we saw his action in Jerusalem, so the word got around in Galilee. And so when he came back to Galilee they welcomed him. Not because they believed in him, but because of the goodies they want to get from him.
Listen, there's so many people follow Jesus for all sorts of reasons. Verse 46 he returns to the Galilee region, specifically to the town of Cana. You remember Cana? It's the first evidence of his messiahship, the first evidence of his mastery of the universe, and of his mastery of nature. The first evidence of turning the water into wine in that wedding in Cana. He comes back to Cana now, the same town.
I'm going to tell you in a minute why. Verse 46, in Cana when he got there, a nobleman from Herod's court, royal court, comes to see him. He was a member of the king's council. In England they would call him a Duke or Earl. I mean he's an advisor to the king's council. This nobleman lived in Capernaum.
Now Capernaum is about 20 miles from Cana. For a man of such a stature, for a man of such power, for a man of such authority, to come to Jesus is a big deal. Just trust me. It's more than a big deal, it's a huge deal. Verse 47, when this man heard that Jesus is in his territory, he said, in Cana, he mounted his mule motorcade, and they all came running to see Jesus. Verse 47 again, this nobleman had a son, and he was dying. He was sick and dying.
Now beloved, let me tell you something. If you had ever watched one of your children hovering between life and death, you will understand the pain of this father. We would never forget when our eldest was 15 years old, and we stood at the ICU in Scottish Rite Hospital. Doctor says she may not make it. When you see your child hovering between life and death, and you stand there helplessly, you will understand the anguish of this father. The anguish is unreal, the pain is searing, the terror is indescribable, and the feeling of helplessness is inexplicable. So you can comprehend a little bit of how he comes to Jesus, pleading with him, come to Capernaum with me to heal my son.
He's hovering between life and death. After all, this man heard about Jesus' compassion over this family, and how he saved them from a horrible disgrace, and being scarred for life, and he changed the water into wine to save their reputation. So what does Jesus do in verse 48? He rebukes him. Listen to me. I think any of us snowflakes of today would have said, oh, this is harsh.
This is terrible. How could Jesus do that? Isn't this the type of miracle that inspires faith? Isn't this the type of miracle that demonstrates Jesus' supernatural power? Yes, but the insistence on only believing after seeing can hinder faith, not develop faith.
Did you get that? This type of miracle, a minute on demand, can create a jaded spirit, and that is why Jesus started with rebuking him and rebuking all of the Galileans who were standing there with him. And he said, unless you people see miracles and miraculous signs, you would not believe. Question, what is Jesus doing here? What is he doing? He's getting this nobleman to do what he doesn't want to do, but he needs to do in order to accomplish God's miracle in his life. So what did he need to do?
More than anything in this world, what do you think this man needed? I think most of you would say, healing of his son, right? Not according to Jesus. According to him, yes. Not according to Jesus. That is not the most desperate thing that he needs. According to Jesus, what this man needed most is an absolute iron-clad trust in who Jesus is, not just what can Jesus give him.
Are you with me? So Jesus takes this nobleman on a training course. He takes him on a training program, training course that will result in exercising, this man exercising faith without seeing.
Another reason our Lord wanted to teach this nobleman and us, he wants to teach you and us, is this. Yes, Jesus answers prayer, but he does not always answer them the way we're expecting him to. Oh, beloved, that's why our faith in Jesus must be deep enough, wide enough, strong enough, high enough, immovable enough to embrace whatever answer he gives us from his loving heart. Yes, Jesus will heal the son. Yes, Jesus did heal the son, but only after accomplishing something far greater than healing. You say there's something greater?
Yes, of course there is. Jesus wanted to transform this father's life of faith. He wanted to coach this man, this nobleman, towards stronger and durable faith.
He wanted to shepherd this nobleman heart into transforming faith. So Jesus said, unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you will not believe. Oh yes, Jesus can do miracles.
That's not the issue. Jesus did do miracles. Jesus will do miracles, but he wants the miracles to be as evidentiary fact of who he is, and he wants to do greater things than miracles. He wants to do greater things than we can even imagine. Let's look closely at actually what happened to this man's faith. Okay, are you following with me? I mean, you cannot help but seeing this amazing progression of this nobleman faith. You cannot help it.
It would hit you in the face in a very short period of time. He goes from flickering faith to flaming faith, but ultimately went into fire faith. His initial flickering faith is when he believed what others said about Jesus and what Jesus did and what Jesus said. That was a flickering faith.
At that point, he did not comprehend, he really did not understand fully who Jesus is. Is he a prophet? Is he a healer? Is he a miracle worker? Oh beloved, he's more than a prophet. He's more than just a founder of a religion. He's far more than just a healer. He's far more than raising the dead. He was more than a teacher.
He is God himself, in human flesh, in human body. In many ways, in our witnessing to others, we don't have all the answers. I tell people all the time, you don't have to have all the answers. You don't have that seminary degree in order to share Christ with somebody. You say, come see the one who forgave me all my sins.
That's all you need to do. Come and see the one who loved me so. Come to the one who gave me peace in the midst of trouble.
Come to the one who promised me heaven even though I deserve hell. Then the journey begins in the growing faith and will continue by the way until we see Jesus face to face. In the beginning of our faith journey, all of us, we started with flickering faith, right?
Do you remember those days? We had flickering faith and then God moves us to flaming faith. The problem is, as I see it, so many people in the church in America and the West generally, they're living all their Christian life with flickering faith.
Never move beyond that. But Jesus knew that this nobleman heart needs to be healed first before his son. His soul needed to be saved first. He might have thought that he was talking to a healer, but he needed to know that he's talking to the Savior of the world. He needed to know that he is talking to the one who coexisted with God the Father in the Godhead before the creation of the world. He needed to know that he is talking to the one through whom and for whom the whole world was created. He needed to know that he is talking to the only Redeemer of mankind.
He needed to know that he's talking to the one who netted him and his son in their mother's womb. But he also needed to understand something else. He needed to understand that his flickering faith is short-range. His flickering faith is narrow in its scope. That his flickering faith was limited in its perspective. Jesus doesn't want you spiritually speaking to keep repeating kindergarten year after year after year.
You'd be 50 years old and still in kindergarten classes. But the man said, now you have to come with me to Capernaum to heal my son. What's he doing here? He's placing conditions on the power of Jesus. Oh how many of us think like this nobleman?
How many of us? How many of us who have made up our minds of what Jesus can and cannot do? How many of us have placed conditions on God's acting? And that is why Jesus had to move this man from flickering faith to flaming faith. I believe with all my heart. I believe with all my heart that with all the horrors that we are experiencing in our culture today. All this horror that we experiencing in our culture that has invaded many a church. All that we're going through today is because God want his children who are living and walking and functioning in flickering faith to move into flaming faith.
I believe with all my heart that God is permitting what we're going through today to wake up his children who have been asleep at the switch. As we look at the dreadful things that are happening in our culture because he wants his real children to have fire faith. Question, why would not Jesus go with that nobleman to Capernaum?
Actually the answer is very simple. He wanted this man to believe that Jesus is more than medical worker. Jesus is more than just a traveling preacher with some power. Jesus wanted this man to know that he's not just a traveling mesmerizer of crowds. Verse 50, Jesus said to the nobleman your son lives. Mr. nobleman I don't have to go to Capernaum to exercise my power. He could have asked what evidence do I have?
What assurance do I have? Can you give me just a little sign that this is really true? That this is really going to take place. At this point this nobleman demonstrated a flaming faith. His faith, his flickering faith gave way to flaming faith. He believed Jesus. He believed Jesus. It's not enough to believe in Jesus you have to believe Jesus. He trusted his word.
He exercised flaming faith in the promise of Jesus. But there's more. There's more. This man could have gone immediately if he believed it. He could have said less speed.
Let's break the speed limit. But do you know what happened? This man did not go home that night. He stayed on the road for that night.
Probably in Cana. No hurry. No hurry to go back. No hurry to rush back.
Why? Because Jesus gave me his word and that's enough. Jesus promised it and that's enough. Jesus declared it and that's enough for me.
Verses 51 to 53. You get the rest of the story. When this man gets home the second day. The second day.
Don't miss this. He inquires of the servants who came to meet him. What time did the boy get healed? They said the seventh hour.
That's one o'clock in the afternoon. The day before. That's when the fever left him.
Yesterday. What happened to this man when he moved from flickering faith to flaming faith to fire faith? He did not rush home. He did not rush home for a full day.
Why? Because his anxiety is gone. His fear is gone. His worries have disappeared. His panic gave way to peace. And here he is.
He did not go home the same day. How many of you think that Jesus wants to see this kind of faith in his children? Your faith will not be manifested when everything in your life is hunky-dory. Whenever dark circumstances come knocking on your door, faith comes out to work. Some of you may have flickering faith and you feel you're about to drown in fear and anxiety. You're facing circumstances beyond your ability to handle and your flickering faith is barely making it.
Don't panic. Ask God to show you how you can move from flickering faith to flaming faith. And when you exercise flaming faith, you will not only be blessed.
No. Everybody around you will be blessed. Thank you for making time in your day for Dr. Michael Youssef and Leading the Way. And I hope you've been encouraged by his solid practical teaching. Dr. Youssef has lots of additional content available on the radio, online, with the Leading the Way app, and through the Leading the Way podcast.
Find out about these and more when you go to ltw.org. In fact, as you look for encouraging, challenging content, you should also consider a podcast from Leading the Way. It's hosted by Dr. Youssef's son Jonathan. It's called Candid Conversations with Dr. Jonathan Youssef. Jonathan has served in pastoral ministry in the United States and abroad for several years now. As Dr. Youssef's saw the passion that Jonathan has for biblical truth and how he's able to effectively share his passion with people of all ages, he challenged Jonathan to develop some content. And Candid Conversations with Dr. Jonathan Youssef was born. And as the title suggests, Jonathan invites guests to speak candidly from a biblical perspective about current cultural challenges and life issues, inviting candid listeners to see life through a biblical lens.
Looking for biblical conversations about faith that fit into your busy life? Here's the truth about truth. If something is true, it's true whether we believe it or not.
Gravity doesn't care about your feelings about gravity. And if Christianity... So many people deconstruct because of hypocrisy and they think all evangelicals are evil and fear-based and all of this, just break that stereotype for them.
It would have taken more faith to maintain my atheism than to become a Christian. We can talk to our children. We can talk to loved ones.
We can talk to friends. And sometimes you think it's never getting through. But as God says, his word never returns void. The storms in our lives do not make, shape, or mold us. They merely reveal what we're made of.
And sometimes it requires the faulty foundations that we've built our lives upon for those things to give way for us to see that all we truly need in this life and in the life beyond is Jesus. Subscribe today to Candid Conversations with Dr. Jonathan Youssef through your favorite podcast platform. Or you can always listen at ltw.org.
Or just follow the Listen link and scroll down. ltw.org. And if you have any questions or you want to support leading the way or order a product, keep this number handy. 866-626-4356. Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef is a listener supported gospel-centered ministry impacting the lives and eternities of people across six continents in 28 of the world's most spoken and understood languages.
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