{"id":30670,"date":"2024-04-15T22:00:07","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T05:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-4_31-42-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-03-26T22:24:13","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T05:24:13","slug":"john-4_43-54","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-4_43-54\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Jesus at His Word"},"content":{"rendered":"

John 4:43-54 \u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 4:43-54.\u00a0 I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

John 4:43-45 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n43\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0After the two days he left for Galilee.
\n44\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0(Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)
\n45\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 43-45:\u00a0 After spending two days in Samaria, Jesus heads for Galilee (v43).\u00a0 Why does John mention here that Jesus said \u201ca prophet has no honor in his own country\u201d (v44), especially if Jesus just left Samaria where many put their faith in Him (v41) and was going to Galilee where the Galileans welcomed him (v45)?\u00a0 Scholars have different theories on why.\u00a0 Perhaps the best explanation is that verse 44 represents a transition point in John\u2019s gospel.\u00a0 Right before verse 44, we see Jesus experiencing great success reaching Samaritans.\u00a0 Right after verse 44 John describes Jesus\u2019 ministry to his own Jewish people, and though Jesus is at first welcomed and performs great miracles, the people would eventually respond by persecuting Jesus (John 5:16) and attempting to kill him (John 5:18).\u00a0 Many of his disciples would end up deserting him (John 6:66).\u00a0 So verse 44 mark the transition for Jesus: from experiencing great popularity and success among the Samaritans to experiencing great opposition among Jesus\u2019 own people.<\/p>\n

John 4:46-48 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n46\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum.
\n47\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
\n48\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 46-48:\u00a0 Jesus returns to Cana where he had turned water into wine at a wedding.\u00a0 Upon his return Jesus is approached by a royal official whose son is dying.\u00a0 The royal official begs Jesus to come and heal his son, to which Jesus replies, “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” (v48)\u00a0 Why did Jesus respond this way to the royal official in his time of pain?\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s because deep down the royal official was questioning why God would allow his son to be in such dire situation.\u00a0 So Jesus\u2019 response in verse 48 is Jesus letting the royal official in on why God allows sickness and disease: to use these situations as an opportunity for God to show His power and glory so that people who might otherwise be far from God would place their faith in Him.\u00a0 Indeed that is what would happen in verse 53 \u2013 \u201cso he and all his household believed\u201d.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0When you are in an extremely tough situation, remember that one of the reasons God allows pain in our lives is so that ultimately God would display His power and glory through the situation, so that many would know Him and believe in Him.<\/strong><\/p>\n

John 4:49-54 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n49\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
\n50\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jesus replied, “You may go. Your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed.
\n51\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living.
\n52\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.”
\n53\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and all his household believed.
\n54\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 49-54:\u00a0 I respect the faith of the royal official not just in coming to Jesus with his problem, but even more taking Jesus at his word (v50) when Jesus promised, \u201cYour son will live.\u201d\u00a0 That is faith.\u00a0\u00a0Instead of requiring that God do things your way, faith is taking Jesus at His Word, believing He will be faithful to His promises and trusting in God\u2019s timing, even when you don\u2019t see anything miraculous at the moment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lord Jesus, thank You that in my most painful moments, You are still writing a greater story than anything I could write.\u00a0 Please help me to have faith where instead of demanding that You do things my way, I am happy to take You at Your Word and trust in Your timing, knowing that You are faithful to every promise You make.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 4:43-54.\u00a0 I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

John 4:43-45 (NIV)
\n43\u00a0\u00a0After the two days he left for Galilee.
\n44\u00a0\u00a0(Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)
\n45\u00a0\u00a0When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there.
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses 43-45:\u00a0 After spending two days in Samaria, Jesus heads for Galilee (v43).\u00a0 Why does John mention here that Jesus said \u201ca prophet has no honor in his own country\u201d (v44), especially if Jesus just left Samaria where many put their faith in Him (v41) and was going to Galilee where the Galileans welcomed him (v45)?\u00a0 Scholars have different theories on why.\u00a0 Perhaps the best explanation is that verse 44 represents a transition point in John\u2019s gospel.\u00a0 Right before verse 44, we see Jesus experiencing great success reaching Samaritans.\u00a0 Right after verse 44 John describes Jesus\u2019 ministry to his own Jewish people, and though Jesus is at first welcomed and performs great miracles, the people would eventually respond by persecuting Jesus (John 5:16) and attempting to kill him (John 5:18).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30670"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30673,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30670\/revisions\/30673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}