Seeing or Believing?

GETTING STARTED

I once heard in a sermon that God is always late and always on time. In our hurry-up, I’ve-got-to-see-it-to-believe-it culture, it sometimes may seem that God isn’t moving quickly enough, or at all. It is often only in hindsight that we realize he was, in fact, exactly on time.

  • Can you think of a time you had to see the outcome before you could believe that God had indeed been working?

READ THE WORD: JOHN 4:46-54 (ESV) 

46 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. 47 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. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 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.” 53 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. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

DIGGING DEEPER

  1. What evidence is there that the official had faith in Jesus? 
  2. What evidence is there that it was an immature faith?
  3. What evidence is there that his faith grew because of his encounter with Jesus?
  4. What happened once the man returned home (vs. 53)?
  5. How is your faith deepened by realizing that it is never too late for God?

RESPOND TO GOD

How often do we think that if Jesus doesn’t do things in a way which seems logical,  he might not be doing anything? The man logically thought that Jesus had to be present to heal his son; yet, Jesus demonstrated that he is never too far away and that it is never too late for him to work. The healing of the son was secondary to Jesus compared to the health of the father’s faith. When Jesus spoke, the man believed and took him at his word, and then started home. No more questioning, no more need for signs or wonders—just faith that what Jesus said was true, a faith that had matured.

  • Ask God for faith to trust him when his ways aren’t logical or quick.
  • Ask God to develop in you that same confident, maturing faith.