John 4:46-54 So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman… Who shall persuade us that we have not here a true story? I. Notice SOME OF ITS LESS OBVIOUS POINTS. 1. Mark the word "for" in ver. 44. He went into His own country because there was no honour for Him there. 2. Mark the setting of the text. A father pleads for the life of his son. Who would not have thought that the kind Saviour would instantly say, "I will?" Yet He treats the application as a great error. "Except ye see." He disregards the man and treats him as the mouthpiece of a mistaken multitude, whose prevalent fallacy was to make miracles the condition of belief. No ordinary man would have thought of that answer. 3. This apparent rebuff, however, was only a trial of his constancy. "Like the rest of your nation you set aside Divine holiness, wisdom, and love and fasten on power, You forget how many works of power there are which are not God's, and not until you have marked the adjuncts — holiness, wisdom, love — can you pronounce them Divine." The nobleman responded, "Come down, ere my child die," as though he had said, "I am not thirsting for evidences." It is the voice of nature, and the God of nature hears it. The trial is ended and the victory is won. II. NOTICE THE WONDERFUL INTERTWINING OF NATURE AND GRACE IN THE GOSPEL. The Gospel adapts itself to all that is best and beautiful in man's heart. 1. It has been found in some hour of mortal peril that persons of no religion will invoke the mercy of that Being who, up to that moment, they had denied. Scepties, no doubt, can account for this in the survival of old prejudices. Christians naturally account for it by supposing that a belief in God is a primary principle in man's nature. 2. As in individuals so in families. (1) Fathers who have made shipwreck of faith for themselves want Christ for their children. The immoral man would fence his child from. vice; the sceptic refuses to rear his child on negatives and chooses, therefore, a Christian school. (2) And if the father sees his child stretched on a couch of pain from which he may never rise, is there not a voice in his heart crying, "Sir, come down, ere my child die." I know the case is not rare in which the doubting or disbelieving father hag desired, has sought, for his son the spiritual healing, has called in some man of God whose repute was highest for communication with the invisible, has encouraged his visits, has even knelt in the corner while he prayed, and has joined with strong cries and tears in the "Rock of ages, cleft for me," sung or said in the chamber where the staying pray with the going; and has gone off from the experience and trial strong in the Son of God, to say at last, "Let me die the death of the righteous; let my last end be like His." Christ is marching to complete the sum of happiness and to round the circle of being. (Dean Vaughan.) Parallel Verses KJV: So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. |
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