I have mentioned my time as a student ministry quite often. One thing that I did not understand as a teenager was faith. Pray this prayer, I was told at conferences and camps, and you will have eternal life. “If you really mean these words then you will have eternal life.”

It did not take me long to look at the text of Scripture and see that this idea was not there. If you fast forward a few years, I was not in church. I was off doing things that I should not be doing, not in church because that was the last place I wanted to be.

I’ve told the story before, one night I was at a party and just realized that I was not supposed to be doing what I was doing. It was my 21^st Birthday Party. I realized then and there that I needed to turn from living the life that I had lived. I needed to trust Christ and turn from ruling my own life.

I don’t know the churches that some of you have attended in the past. Nor do I know how church camps and conferences called you to faith in Christ before I came here. I do know this though, there are a lot of people in America that call people to recite a prayer and never give an explanation of biblical faith.

Jesus calls us to faith in Him. He calls us to repent and believe in Him, not recite some words and really mean it with all of our heart. This is not to say that no one has ever come to faith in Christ in the recitation of a prayer, but it is to say that we need to understand what Biblical Faith is and consider whether or not we have actually trusted in Christ.

And, since repentance and faith are not just a one-time decision we make, but a posture that we live the rest of our lives in then we need to understand just what it is. Our response to Christ is not reciting a prayer, but placing our faith in Him.

If we trust in Christ, He will move us from death to life.

We are going to take a look at a fascinating story in the life of Christ. It is one of those events that we would normally call miracles, but as was seen in the account of turning the water into wine, John calls them signs. It is a sign because it points us to understand that Jesus is the “Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:31 ESV).

I believe that this is also an enacted parable. I am persuaded that, for the most part, the miracle healings could be called “enacted parables”. These are healings that really happened in history, but are also used to teach something. A few weeks ago we discussed the water being turned to wine. Jesus solved the wine problem while at the same time taught that the time of Messiah was now here. He inaugurated that time with “abundant wine” (John 2:1-12). It was an enacted parable. It really happened in history and it really taught us something of who Jesus is and what He was doing.

The Messiah has come, the new temple is here, and He has brought the new birth. Being a part of this new kingdom is offered to everyone. From the righteous man Nicodemus to the unrighteous woman at the well the Kingdom of God is being offered to everyone. And now, we will see the Kingdom of God being offered to a Gentile.

If we trust in Christ, He will move us from death to life.

As we look at this story about the healing of an officer’s son we understand the answer to a very important question. How does a person go from death to life. We all begin our lives dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians2:1-5; Colossians 2:13). We are spiritually dead and need

We all begin our lives dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians2:1-5; Colossians 2:13). We are spiritually dead and need spiritual life.

Jesus was just celebrated in Samaria. His time there had been very rewarding an entire town came to faith in Him in only a few days’ time. Jesus is welcomed in Galilee, but it is obviously not the same as in Samaria. It is apparent that though Galilee sees him as a miracle worker he is not regarded as the Savior of the World by the Galileans as he is the Samaritans. It causes him to remark that “a prophet has no honor in his own hometown”. (John 4:44 ESV)

The situation is a bit bleak in comparison to Samaria. Jesus turned water into wine here at Cana. This is a much more extraordinary miracle than he had performed for the Samaritans, yet the Samaritans believed. The despised Samaritans turned to Christ while God’s covenant people rejected Him.

“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. 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.”  (John 4:46-48 ESV)

Saving Faith Is More Than Just A Knowledge Of Facts (John 4:46-48)

 

Jesus is welcomed in Galilee because of his great power. He turned water into wine last time he was here and this news had spread since he was gone. The people were coming from far and wide to see Jesus the miracle worker but this was different than the Samaritans who said, “and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” This causes us to ask some real questions concerning faith. What is true belief in Christ?

When we read in our English Bibles there is a little something lost in translation here. I gripe a few times a year about the English Language’s lack of a second person plural pronoun. It actually has one located in the South and people make fun of it all the time. The problem is that “y’all” is a substitute for an actual deficiency in our language. It would be helpful here if you would read Jesus’ words and substitute into it “y’all” when you read the word “you”. This will help it make more sense to you because Jesus speaks in the second person plural in his response to the officer.

In other words the man asks Jesus to help his son who is near the point of death. He is very ill and no one has been able to help him. And Jesus responds to him by saying that the entire group of people will not believe unless they see signs and wonders. Jesus is commenting about the lack of faith in the people of Galilee, not the request of the child’s father. Although we should understand that the Father is part of this “y’all”. His faith in Christ is much the same as everyone else in Galilee.

So, what is deficient in the faith of the Galileans? The substance of their belief in Jesus stands only in that they know him to be a miracle worker. They are there to see him perform miracles. They likely believe him to be from God. It is also likely that they believe him to be a prophet. But unlike the Samaritans they do not believe him to be the Savior of the World.

If you study Church History enough you’ll begin to understand that things get clarified when problems arise. We understand more about the nature of Jesus and the Trinity because of the tireless work that came in the wake of what is known as Arianism. Jehovah’s Witnesses are modern day Arians, though they hate to hear that stated to them. Athenasius led the way in searching the Scriptures for clarity on these topics. Something similar happened concerning the nature of faith after the Protestant Reformation.

Responding to the gospel by faith in Christ is taught throughout Scripture. Those who rebelled against the Roman Catholic Church embraced the doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone which was in defiance of what the Catholic Church taught. One of the great things to come out of this discussion was the nature of faith. Embracing Christ by faith had been long overlooked and clarity on the topic needed to be brought to the table. The Protestant Reformers did just that. They stated that saving faith had these three characteristics: Notitia (knowledge), Assensus (assurance or conviction that the information is true), and Fiducia (trust in the knowledge). I believe this to be very helpful as we look at this text.

Notitia (Knowledge)

 

Notitia simply means knowledge. It is knowing the essential facts. The essential facts of the gospel are that Jesus is God the Son who came to Earth, died on a cross, and rose again from the dead. Now he is seated at the right hand of God and will return again to judge the living and the dead.

These are simple facts. Depending on the church that you grew up in you may have memorized these facts as a young child.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit

and born of the virgin Mary.

He suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried;

he descended to hell.

The third day he rose again from the dead.

He ascended to heaven

and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.

From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

Now, even the people in Samaria did not know all of these things, yet they did know that Jesus was the Savior of the World before He went to death on the cross and rose from the dead. We live on the other side of history where the message is not the Messiah is coming but that He has already come. Because of that we know more than they do and the facts shapeup a little differently.

The important thing to note though is that they knew of Jesus’ supernatural power yet did not believe him to be the Savior of the World. Just knowing that Jesus was somehow supernatural was not enough. They needed to know that he was the Savior of the world.

There are many people who never get off of the starting block concerning faith. They don’t know or believe the right things about Jesus. We need to know that Jesus is the Savior of the world because of who He is, God the Son, and the perfect and completed salvation that he accomplished for us.

Assensus (the assurance or conviction that the information is true)

 

Assensus is where we get our word “assent”. It means that we are assured that the information given is true. In the Christian life it means that not only do we have notitia and know the facts, but we also know the facts to be true. It is one thing to say that the life, death, and resurrection are what the church believes. It is quite another to say that you yourself believe it to have happened in history.

The people of Samaria had this as well. Not only did they believe that Jesus said he was the Christ, but they also believed him to be so. They believed this fact about him to be true.

Fiducia (trust in the knowledge)

 

Fiducia is trust in the knowledge that we have. Francis Turretin explained this very well when he said,

“The third act [of saving faith] is…a persuasion of the practical intellect by which we judge the gospel to not only be true, but also good and therefore most worthy of our love and desire…”-Francis Turretin in the late 1600’s.

Here, the message of the gospel is seen as a wonderful treasure and I take hold of it. It is valuable and it is desirable. The new birth explained in John 3 gives us an understanding of how wonderful this truth is. Then we desire it and chase after it for ourselves. This idea is illustrated very well by Jesus in Matthew 13:44-45.

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matthew 13:44-45 ESV)

The person who has true faith in Christ has knowledge of the facts, know these facts to be true, and see them as worth giving up everything for. So, they turn to Christ and follow him.

The crowd in Galilee had some knowledge of who Jesus was. They did not yet have a full knowledge of who he was, but had a knowledge of him. He had already revealed himself to be the Messiah when he turned water into wine, but they did not believe. They simply wanted to see Jesus do more miraculous things. They did not have a conviction that this information was true and they did not trust in it. They had not passed from death to life. They saw Jesus’ power and might yet did not believe.

There are many people, especially here in the south, who know Jesus is Lord or at least some good things about him yet do not believe in him truly. Faith is about more than just knowing things about Jesus. It’s actually about more than knowing true things about him. We know and believe the true Jesus and trust him. We see him as most worthy of our love and desire and give up on ruling our own life and trust in Him.

The challenge is to examine yourself. Examine whether or not you believe rightly and trust in Christ. Faith is about more than knowing facts about Jesus. We know who he is, what he did for us, and trust him.

Saving Faith Is Trusting In Christ (John 4:50-53)

 

The rebuke given to everyone in hearing did nothing to diminish this man’s pleading with Jesus. He did not yet believe as the Samaritans had, but would savingly know Jesus after what Jesus does. Though he did believe that Jesus had the ability to save his child from death, he did not believe Jesus was the Savior of the World as the Samaritans did. Jesus knew that he required a miracle to believe in Jesus.

We see this oftentimes today. My wife worked with a lady for a few years that knew her Bible very well, yet she said that she did not believe that what it said about Jesus was true. This attitude is oftentimes followed by the Galilean attitude of , “if I see a miracle, I will believe”. “If only God would heal this person in my family, I would believe.” “If only I had ___________ I would believe.” “If only God would _____________I would believe.” This attitude is fairly common and apparently it was in Jesus’ day as well.

On the other hand there are many people that say they believe in Jesus yet go no further than knowing the facts of who he is and what he has done. They have knowledge of Christ, believe it to be true, but have not turned to him in faith and followed him. This man crosses from a deficient faith in Christ to saving faith when his child is rescued from death.

“Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 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 the seventh 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, and all his household.” (John 4:50-53 ESV)

This story is interesting because the man goes from believing what Jesus is telling him and believing that Jesus is a miracle worker to believing that Jesus is the Savior of the World. He goes from believing to truly believing. What changed?

Jesus did something people cannot do. People cannot just walk up to a person and heal them, but it’s even more improbable to look at someone whose child is at home and heal them. Jesus was not telling the future, by the Word of Christ this child was made well. Who does this kind of thing? Who heals like that? This man went from knowing a few things about Jesus to knowing who he is and knowing it was true, then he entrusted himself to Christ. This man saw Jesus as the great treasure that he is and trusted in him.

The response to Christ is not saying a prayer. It is not reciting some words. It is seeing him as glorious and trusting in him.

God created the world and all it contains. He made it good and pure. The entire Earth was without evil and it was pleasing to God. Man changed that. Adam rebelled against God and brought sin and death to the Earth. People now are born rebels against God with a bent toward rebellion against God. We are now God’s enemies, not his friends. We now have earned for ourselves God’s wrath and justice. And that is the punishment that is hanging over us.

God would have been perfectly righteous to leave things that way. He could have poured out his justice on every single person that existed and been totally fair. But, he did not do things that way. He sent His Son to come to Earth, live a perfect life on our behalf, and die in our place. Jesus came and lived the life we should have lived and died the death we owed. He then rose from the dead, which was God’s seal of approval. Jesus’ sacrifice was enough. It was paid in full. We respond to that message with the faith of the Samaritans and now the faith of the official. We know who Jesus is truly, know this to be true, and entrust our lives to him. He is truly the Savior of the World and we respond to that by trusting in him.

The father knew that Jesus had healed his son, and so he believed. At that moment he passed from death to life. Have you passed from death to life? Have you truly believed in Christ?

Anyone Who Has Saving Faith In Christ Will Pass From Death To Life (John 4:50-53)

 

The beauty of this passage is extraordinary. In chapter 3 Jesus speaks with Nicodemus who was a righteous man in the eyes of nearly every Israelite, he did not believe. In chapter 4 Jesus speaks with the Samaritan Woman who was thought of as unrighteous by everyone who knew her situation and she truly believes and so does her town. Now, at the end of chapter 4, Jesus speaks with a  Gentile who truly believes.

In the midst of this last story is an enacted parable. It is a parable that teaches us about crossing over from death to life. This boy was on the brink of physical death while discussing the spiritual death that he saw in Galilee. By Christ’s Word the boy is healed. After the father finds out that his son is healed he and the rest of his family pass from death to life.

We are all on the brink of eternal death. We are spiritually dead and if we pass to eternity that way then we will endure the wrath of God forever. If you trust in Jesus, then you will pass from spiritual death to spiritual life.

The message goes out. Jesus saves! Through his perfect work on Earth! Jesus saves! Through his perfect sacrifice on the Earth! Jesus saves! Through his glorious resurrection! Jesus saves! The message goes out to you and everyone else that can hear, Jesus saves! Now trust in Him.

Here is a link to the presentation as delivered tonight. 

R. Dwain Minor