[Sunday, December 28, 2025] Go, Your Son Is Alive | John 4:43–54

[Sunday, December 28, 2025] Go, Your Son Is Alive | John 4:43–54

Sermon by Rev. Jinkook (Danny) Sohn (Hope of Heaven Baptist Chuch) 

 

2025. 12. 28. 주일예배 설교- 요한복음 강해 14
본문: 요한복음 4:43–54
제목: 가라 네 아들이 살아 있다

설교자: 손진국 목사 (하늘소망교회)

 

 

In today’s passage, we see a scene in which Jesus meets a royal official in Cana of Galilee, the region where Jesus grew up from childhood, after leaving Samaria. This royal official had been in Capernaum, and when he heard that Jesus had gone to Cana, he came all the way there. Why did he come to Cana? [Verse 46] Once 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. He came to Cana because his son was sick in Capernaum.

It says that he went up from Capernaum to Cana, and this was not a short distance. Capernaum is a city located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, and the distance to Cana is about 32–34 kilometers. If we assume that a healthy adult man walks about 4 km per hour, it would take around 8 hours. The road distance from our church to the Sky Tower in Auckland City is about 33 km. This royal official traveled a distance similar to that to meet Jesus. Isn’t that remarkable? What kind of heart did he come with? Verse 47 gives us a glimpse of his heart.

[Verse 47] When 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.

What did he say when he met Jesus? “Come down and heal my son.” He did not explain at length; it was simple. “Come and save him.” Do you see the desperate heart of a father who wants to save his son? I think that the heart most needed by you and me, who believe in Jesus and live a life of faith, is the very heart of this royal official. We need desperation. We need earnestness. “Lord, there is no hope unless You save him. Lord, please save him. I cannot do this without You. Lord, please come and meet me.” I hope that you and I who are worshiping today will have such earnestness in our hearts.

In response to this simple yet earnest and desperate prayer of the father who said, “Come and save my son,” how did the Lord respond? Did He go down to Capernaum with him as requested? No, He did not. He did not lay His hands on the father and pray for the son either. Instead, Jesus spoke very simply, yet with a completely unexpected and amazing word. What did He say? This is today’s sermon title. Let us read it together: “Go, your son is alive.”

Through today’s passage, I hope we will take time to reflect again on whether we are truly believing in Jesus as we claim to believe, and to think deeply about faith.

 

1. Faith Is Holding On to the Word

This royal official came a long distance from Capernaum to Cana to save his son who was at the point of death. When he came to Jesus and said, “Come down and heal my son,” what was the first thing Jesus said?

[Verse 48] Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe.

From these words of Jesus, we can see how people’s faith in Jesus often begins. Generally, people try to believe what they can see. Before I believed in Jesus, there was something I often said to those who shared the gospel with me and told me to believe: “Fine, show me first, then I’ll believe.” How did you come to believe? Did anyone here believe because you saw something?

Among the people I know, there are some who believed that way. One person, before undergoing a major surgery, came up from Wellington to Auckland and stayed at accommodation near the hospital. The night before the surgery, while sleeping, he woke up because a light was shining. In one corner of the room, a bright light appeared, and as it gradually came closer and grew larger, there was a cross within that light. The next day, he found a church through a Korean community magazine, contacted them, invited a pastor, worshiped, and accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

Some of you may also have come to believe in Jesus because God showed you something miraculous. I believe that believing in Jesus in that way is an amazing work of God and an act of grace. At the same time, there are many who came to believe in Jesus without seeing such miraculous signs. I believe that is also an amazing work of God and grace. What does that mean? It means that the very fact that I believe in Jesus today is itself a miracle and God’s great grace.

When I first believed in Jesus and during my early days of faith, many things happened to me as well. I saw visions and witnessed amazing miracles of God. I confess that all of it was God’s grace. But look again at Jesus’ words in verse 48. What do they mean? If you believed in Jesus after seeing signs and wonders, that is grace. If you believed in Jesus without seeing signs and wonders, that too is grace. However, what Jesus is saying here is that remaining at the level of faith that believes only after seeing signs and wonders is not good. He is rebuking that kind of faith. He is teaching that we must move beyond faith that depends on signs and wonders.

Through the royal official’s plea to save his son, Jesus is teaching that faith must move from believing only after seeing signs and wonders to believing and trusting in Jesus Himself. What is remarkable is that this royal official held on to Jesus’ words.

[Verse 50] Jesus replied, “You may go. Your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed.

At first, this official asked Jesus to go and show a miracle by saving his son. Now we see him believing Jesus’ words and holding on to them. This is progress in faith. Faith must move from “believing after seeing” to “holding on to the Word.”

Before I believed and even for some time after believing, I experienced many visions and miracles. But after a certain period, God no longer showed me those things. Instead, He moved my heart through His Word and led me to live a life of faith by holding on more and more to the Word. Faith is an attitude of trusting God’s Word itself, not relying on visible results.

God told Abraham that He would give him descendants through his wife Sarah, even though she was past the age of childbearing and humanly unable to conceive. God spoke of something that seemed impossible, yet Abraham believed that word.

[Hebrews 4:18] Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

This is faith. If God has spoken, we hold on to His Word. It is not living according to visible circumstances and conditions, but believing in the faithful Word of God and living accordingly. I bless you all to become saints who live by trusting God’s Word.

[Application] Do I believe only when I see answers? Am I trusting and obeying with God’s Word alone?

 

2. Faith Is the Decision to Set Out According to the Word

When Jesus said, “Go, your son is alive,” the royal official made a remarkable response, which appears at the end of verse 50.

[Verse 50] Jesus replied, “You may go. Your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed.

What was his action? “He departed.” In this short phrase, “he departed,” we see the decision to actually move his feet, holding on to Jesus’ word telling him to go.

At moments like this, what do people usually say? “You’re just going to go because He told you to?” “You should at least see something happen before deciding whether to go or not.” This is the human heart, and this is our weakness that leads us to doubt and disobey rather than believe the Word and obey.

However, the way to overcome this weakness is to hold on to God’s Word and move our feet accordingly. Listening to God’s Word, meditating on it, researching it, and studying it are important. But even if we study the Word, if we do not actually walk it out in our lives, that is not living faith but dead faith.

[James 2:17] In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

The fact that this royal official believed Jesus’ word and went means that he decided to believe and act according to that word. He had not yet seen his son healed, but he believed as though he had already seen it and applied it to his life.

I believe that what we need today is this decision of faith. Obedience comes from this decision of faith. Noah made a decision of faith to follow God’s Word and obeyed. Even though it had never rained, he obeyed God’s command to build an ark. Although the exact construction period is unknown, he built the ark for decades, even over a hundred years. This was a decision of faith to trust God’s Word and follow it, rather than follow circumstances.

Corrie ten Boom lost her father and sister in a German concentration camp, but she did not lose her faith. After the war, she traveled around the world proclaiming the message of forgiveness. After finishing a meeting at a German church, as she was greeting people who were lined up to shake her hand, she saw a former guard who had most cruelly tormented her family and had caused her sister’s death. As she moved down the line toward him, she heard God’s voice saying, “Forgive.” But she kept crying out, “God, You know—I cannot forgive that man.”

Finally, when she stood in front of the guard, the Holy Spirit spoke once again: “Forgive him.” To that man whom she could not forgive, Corrie said, “I cannot forgive you, but the Lord who lives within me tells me to forgive you, so I forgive you,” and she embraced him. At that moment, compassion for the guard’s soul flooded her heart, and a genuine desire to forgive arose within her. She embraced him again and said, “I truly forgive you.”

We often say that we cannot do something because our situation or circumstances do not allow it, or because our hearts are not moved. But there are times when the Lord tells us to do it anyway. Remember that this is precisely the moment when we must make a decision of faith to obey God’s Word and move our feet.

[Application] Am I hesitating even after hearing God’s Word? When the Lord says, “Go,” how do I respond?

 

3. A Decision of Faith Produces Conviction

As the official obeyed Jesus’ command to go and was on his way down to the town where his dying son was, he met his servants, who brought him amazing news.

[Verse 51] While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living.

Just as Jesus had spoken, the child was truly alive.

Even though he believed Jesus’ word, it must have been astonishing to see that word actually fulfilled. When I pray for people who are sick, sometimes I lay my hands on them and pray. Shortly after I became a senior pastor for the first time, I was greeting a deaconess in the parking lot after Sunday worship, wishing her a safe trip home, when she suddenly asked me to pray for her. She was suffering from frozen shoulder and could hardly move her arm or turn her neck, making it very difficult for her to drive. Standing beside her car, I prayed, asking for God’s mercy and that her frozen shoulder would be healed and that she would be able to move freely.

About thirty minutes later, when she arrived home, she called me. “Pastor, my frozen shoulder is completely healed. I suffered so much before, but after you prayed, I drove home with no pain at all. I can lift and rotate my arm without any pain. I’m completely healed.” What do you think? Do you believe that God answered the prayer and worked to heal her? I believe so too. But do you know what I said to her on the phone when I heard that? “Really?” I was so surprised.

Likewise, this royal official, after hearing Jesus’ word and obeying, probably cried out when he heard that his son had been healed, “Is that really true?”

He must have wanted to confirm whether this truly happened because of what Jesus said. So he asked, in verse 51, “When did your son begin to get better?” When he checked, he confirmed that it was at the exact time when Jesus said, “Your son is alive.” He made a decision of faith and obeyed, and through that obedience, he experienced God’s faithfulness, which became conviction.

What result does conviction produce? It appears in verse 53.

[Verse 53] Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.

When this royal official gained conviction in the Lord, his entire household came to believe. When faith in the Lord becomes settled as conviction, it carries great influence. Unbelievers around us may feel uncomfortable around those with firm faith, yet they also envy them. On the other hand, people who claim to believe but waver without conviction may feel comfortable to others, but they are not envied. That means they have no influence.

Believe the Word that God has spoken. Obey by moving your feet according to that Word, with faith that it will surely be fulfilled. God will certainly respond to that decision of faith and obedience, work through it, and lead us to have firm conviction that trusts and relies fully on Him.

[Application] Do I have testimonies of God’s Word being fulfilled according to what He said?
How is my faith influencing others?

 

 

하늘소망교회(담임 손진국 목사)는 뉴질랜드 오클랜드 북부 실버데일에 세워진 한인교회로 '하나님의 마음으로 사람을 살리는 교회'입니다.

Hope of Heaven Baptist Church (Senior Pastor: Rev. Jinkook Sohn) is a Korean church established in Silverdale, Auckland, New Zealand. It is a church that saves people with the heart of God.