This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, Jesus is God's Answer to Man's Doubt.
We all struggle with times of doubt, and what we need is strong faith. Doubt questions, “Who believes?” Faith answers, “I do.”
And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death (John 4:46b-47).
Here was a man with a problem. He was a nobleman, with prestige, power, and wealth. But he had a problem he could not handle: a son who was sick. It was a question of doubt.
There were several obstacles to this nobleman’s faith.
All this man had was hearsay, from listening to other people talk about Jesus’ miracles.
Second-hand faith is not strong faith. You cannot go to Heaven because of your mother’s faith, your pastor’s faith, or anybody else’s. Hearing what Jesus has done for others is not strong faith in God.
When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:13-15).
Do you know about Jesus? Or do you know Him?
Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe” (John 4:48).
Jesus was rebuking the man when He said this. He said in another place, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign” (Matthew 12:39b). Even when Jesus Christ was on the cross, skeptics said, “Let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him” (Matthew 27:42b).
Are you in that category?
Look back in John 2:23—“Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.”
Here came the entourage. “But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men” (John 2:24). They believed in Him, but He did not believe in them.
Why? Because He knew that these people were not hungry for God; they were hungry for a miracle.
The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!” (John 4:49).
What is he interested in? The welfare of his child. Is anything wrong with that? No. But this man has yet to bow at the feet of Jesus Christ and worship Him.
There is nothing wrong with asking God to bless us. But strong faith is interested primarily in the glory of God.
This nobleman was trying to tell Jesus what to do, and when.
Have you been guilty of that? Instead of saying, “Lord, your servant hears,” maybe you are saying, “Listen, Lord, I’m talking to you.” Weak faith comes from a strong will.
Faith is not so much receiving from God the things that you want, as it is accepting from God the things that He gives. Faith is hearing God, believing God, and acting on what God says.
Now, this nobleman in John 4 will go through a radical change. He will look past the miracles and see Jesus.
Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your son lives.” So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way (John 4:50).
What is strong faith?
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).
In order for you to have faith, you must know what God has said. Faith is a response to the Word of God. That is why we preach. If you want people to believe, give them something to believe. You must give them the Word of God.
Hearing is not enough.
“I want to believe in God, but I have doubts.”
If you do not believe, you do not have intellectual problems. You have moral problems. Your problem is in your heart; not your head. (See Hebrews 3:12.) Unbelief is not weakness—it is wickedness, and rebellion. If you want to believe today, God will enable you to.
This nobleman now believes, before he saw a thing. No sign, no wonders. What does he have? Only the face of Jesus.
Faith is the soul’s response to the character of God.
And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, “Your son lives!” (John 4:51).
He is doing exactly what Jesus told him to do. Had he not believed, he would have stayed there, still demanding a sign, still asking Jesus to do it. But now his faith is shown by obedience.
True faith is always linked to obedience. “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26).
Are you saved by faith and works? Oh, no. But you are saved by faith that works. If it doesn’t work, it is not faith.
But here’s the sweet part.
Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives” (John 4:52-53a).
Between when Jesus said to this man, “Your son is okay,” and this episode when he meets his servants, twenty-four long hours have passed. This man lived in Capernaum and encountered Jesus in Cana, twenty miles away. With some conveyance, this nobleman could probably have been there in two or three hours.
But twenty-four hours have passed. This is an incredible demonstration of faith.
Faith is resting in the Word of God. You do not have to worry; you can wait on the Lord. This man had the word of Jesus, the word of God. When you need a blessing, an answer to prayer, do you need Jesus here physically to get it? No.
“He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions” (Psalm 107:20). Jesus is not here in a body today. But we have His Word. The Bible is not just a book; it is the Word of God.
And he himself believed, and his whole household (John 4:53b).
Now, the nobleman is not believing for physical healing, he is believing for salvation. That is why the miracles were there: that he might go on to believe in the Lord.
Imagine him as he goes back home, and says to his wife, his son, his household, “I have met the Messiah. Trust Him. We will be saved.”
Jesus did not come as a teacher or as a healer, but as a Savior.
And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name (John 20:30-31).
John 2:23-24, 4:46-53, 20:30-31; Matthew 12:39, 16:13-15, Matthew 27:42; Romans 10:17; Hebrews 3:12; James 2:26; Psalm 107:20
But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin (Romans 14:23).
Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, “How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me” (John 10:24-25).
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways (James 1:6-8).
