Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity (1883)

John 4:46-54 Faith has value everywhere in Scripture. "Whoever believes and is baptized" etc.1 " Be of good cheer, your faith has" etc.2 "Believe in the Lord Jesus" etc.3 "If you believe in your heart" etc.4 However, by our own reason and strength we can so little believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord, and come to Him that we, if it were up to us, would probably remain without faith forever. Jesus alone is the author and finisher of faith.5 However, how long does it last, how difficult it is often, until the human heart can make itself willing and bring itself to faith! How long is the working of the Holy Spirit wantonly resisted! Therefore the Lord must often take the miraculous way of Grace, men should attain faith in a different way and bring from that the end of faith, salvation of the soul.6 How the wonderful ways of the Lord goes with mankind in order to bring them to faith and strengthen them in faith. 1. He inflicted cross and passion on them so that they seek Him and learn to trust Him. a. The "nobleman" was in the service of King Herod (Antipas), who beheaded John the Baptist, therefore perhaps a man of prestige and wealth, but also a courtier who lived there without concern for his soul, without the word of God, without prayer, who surrendered to the worldly bustle with its lusts, sins and perversities. The mercy of the Lord, however, that examines every stray soul, knows how to strike his heart. The nobleman lets his own child fall into severe illness; the vanity of all earthly things was clear in this illness in a serious way. How can his money and property, his position, rank and prestige help him now? In these hours of need where all help of mankind melts away, the prophet of Nazareth comes to the nobleman's mind. He remembers that all sorts of wonderful things are told about Him. He does not wantonly oppose the inclination and the power of grace of the Holy Spirit, who moves his heart. The first spark of faith begins to smolder in him. And when he hears that Jesus came near, he sets out to meet him in Cana. - How often must the dear cross help pave the way to faith in the Lord! We do not readily come to Jesus in good days. "When trouble is there" etc.7 "Temptation teaches" etc.8 And basically all distress is saddled on us, distress of sin, etc. It only and always wants to achieve its purpose among us, as with the nobleman. b. The clearest proof of his faith that he "clings to Christ", that he, the distinguished gentleman, not only sets off in person in order to approach the Lord, but also takes up his request with Him in the most humblest and moving way.9 He therefore believes the Lord can and will help him, where all help from man is over. He puts such confidence in Christ. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. The nobleman was already no more an unbelieving man of the world, but a true Christian, a beloved child of God through faith in Christ. How the heart may rejoice in the Good Shepherd as He finally found the lost
1 2

Mark 16:16. Matthew 9:22. 3 Acts 16:31. 4 Romans 10:9. 5 Hebrews 12:2. 6 1 Peter 1:9. 7 Isaiah 26:16. 8 Isaiah 28:19. 9 John 4:47.

sheep and could hold him in His arms of grace! There judgment is brought to victory10, where the first spark of faith is lit in the heart, there is forgiveness of sin, grace, righteousness, eternal life. O blessed consolation for the afflicted! But at first, however, external reputation and feelings disagreed entirely with this faith. The Lord almost rudely received the nobleman. 2. He attacks even His dear faithful often hard in order to increase and crown their faith. a. Struggle of faith. "Unless you see signs and wonders" etc.11 He lacked even the full clarity of the knowledge of Christ, that He will also help away from home and also with a word, yes, could raise the dead, that nothing is impossible with Him, etc. He still clung to much of the miraculous signs, etc. Like our faith is usually very weak and we have to contend with many doubts and unbelief. The Lord now wants to strengthen our faith, but - through struggle. He is apparently our enemy, as it happened to the patriarch Jacob there at the ford of Jabbok, and here to the nobleman. "Unless you see signs and wonders" etc., what a harsh blow! It is as if the nobleman still had no faith at all. So it often seems in severe spiritual trials of His dear Christians. And yet it was only the gracious, friendly play of a father with His dear child. For He wants that we should hold on to Him, as Jacob did then, "I will not let You go" etc., and as the Canaanite woman: "Yes, Lord, but even the little dogs" etc.12 So also the nobleman: Yes, Lord, my faith is weak, but "come down before".13 His trembling, quivering, wavering, frightened faith does not diminish, but struggles and fights with the Almighty, and overcomes him. b. Victory and reward of faith; . stronger faith. "Jesus said to him: Go, your son lives. The man believed in the word" etc.14 Why does he no longer demand that Jesus come down with him? He now had a different faith than before. His weak, small faith was in the wrestling, in the trial, in the struggle had become by the influx of grace a strong faith. Now he is able to believe in the mere word and confidently to go. This is a faith contrary to reason and experience, whereby a man captivates all of his senses and delves into one little word. Oh, if we had such a spark of faith in the end, then we perhaps wanted to endure15; . confirmation of faith. As an answered petitioner, glad and rejoicing in faith, and quite different from what he had come, the nobleman's goes home. The Lord does not take long to confirm it. Where a righteous heart relies solely on the Word of God, there the Lord cannot hide Himself for long. In the going down - the servant. Investigation after time - result "at the same hour."16 So faith is confirmed and finally crowned by glorious appearance17; . the effect of the confirmation. The nobleman bears witness and rejoices about Christ and his witness was so ardent, so vivid and powerful that in his entire house there was no soul, no child, no servant, who would not have been thus brought to faith in Christ. If yesterday his house was spiritually dead, a completely secular house without a Savior, without hope, then today it is full of faith and spiritual life, a house of God. The LORD is near and still stands at the door. He, Who heard the nobleman's supplication, intends to strengthen and also crown our faith. Call on Him earnestly only for yourself, for your own! His gracious hearing will not fail. - O, a happy home in which all believe, like the house of the nobleman! Georg Stckhardt

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Matthew 12:20. John 4:48. 12 Matthew 15:27. 13 John 4:48-49. 14 John 4:50. 15 Matthew 17:20. 16 John 4:51-53. 17 John 4:53.