Before I begin, I want the ladies to know that while I’m referring to this person as the “noble man,” I really mean noble person,
Last week, my sermon and blog were on John 2, when Jesus turned the water into wine. I mentioned that the wine in the Bible was nothing like the wine we have today. You can read that here.
That was the first of seven miracles that John used to prove that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and by believing in Him you could have eternal life.
This is the second one.
John 4:46-54 (MEV)
46 So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick in Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him, pleading that He would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” 49 The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your son lives.” And the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. 51 While he was going down, his servants met him and told him, “Your son lives!” 52 When he inquired of them the hour when he began to heal, they answered, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 Then the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” So he and his whole household believed. 54 This was the second sign that Jesus did when He had come from Judea to Galilee.
The Noble Person
I have titled this “The Noble Man”. The above scripture reads “nobleman.” What does being a noble man (or woman) look like? I’ve been thinking about it. I want to encourage everyone to be a noble person.
What is a Noble Person?
Being noble means having a good reputation. The man in the verses was looked up to in society. The Bible says that a good name is rather to be desired than great riches. (Proverbs 22:1)
Also when I think of nobility I think of royalty. I think back to the fairy tales when the young lady desires her prince to come, marry her, and take her to a place of bliss.
This particular noble man may have been related to Herrod. Not the Herrod that was king when Jesus was born, but some descendant down the way. He may have been related to him and that’s why he was a noble man. In those cases, the babies were born into royalty.
You also think of reputation when you think of nobility.
Nobility also has with it the idea of having high and lofty thoughts. I think of William Carey who went to India. He made the statement, “Expect great things for God. Attempt great things for God.”
While William Carey was in India, it wasn’t all sweetness and roses. While there, his wife suffered some troubles. In spite of that, and other difficulties, he was able to translate the Bible into the language of the people there. Some people call him the father of modern missions.
I also think a noble person carries with him or her the idea of righteousness. Of course, it’s not perfect righteousness.
The man in the scripture showed that he cared for his son. He was a man who knew where to go to find answers for his son: He went to Jesus for the answer.
Jesus sort of rebuked him, and the crowd, when He said, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” Jesus was happy to show the signs and wonders, but He didn’t want people relying on that.
Think about Thomas, one of the apostles. He missed “church” and didn’t see the risen Jesus the first time He appeared in front of the rest of them. The rest of the apostles tried to tell him that Jesus had been there, but he refused to believe them. He said, “Unless I see the nail prints in His hands, and put my finger in the nail prints, and put my hand in His side, I will not believe.”
Eight days later, all the apostles, including Thomas, were together again and Jesus came. Thomas didn’t have to put his finger in the nail prints to believe. He looked at Jesus and said, “My Lord and my God.”
Jesus said, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have yet believed.” (John 20:25-29)
You go through life on a matter of faith. Sometimes, you just have to believe. Sometimes, God will do amazing and wonderful things. Sometimes it’s your faith that carries you through.
This nobleman was undeterred in his mission, though. He had heard the statement Jesus had made. But he told Jesus that his son was sick and pleaded with Him to go to the boy and heal him. Jesus told him to go home, that his son was alive. Then he believed and did as Jesus told him to do.
He went home without Jesus accompanying him because it wasn’t necessary. As he was traveling home, his servants came to meet him and told him, “Your son lives!” He asked when he got better, and they told him the fever broke at the seventh hour, and the nobleman realized that was the exact time that Jesus had said, “Your son lives.”
Why Should We Aspire to be Noble People?
When we think of righteousness, it is required, in a certain form, to enter into Heaven. There is a barrier to getting into Heaven. The barrier is that sin can not come in. The problem is we have all sinned. So righteousness is required to enter into Heaven. It has to be 100% full and complete.
We should aspire to figure out how to get this “credited to our account.”
Then we have the example of Jesus. He was 12 years old and He and His parents had gone to the temple and they lost Him. They went back and found Him in the temple, talking, asking and answering questions, and astounding everyone who heard Him. He went back with His parents and the Bible says He found favor with God and man. (Luke 2:41-52)
His time for ministry was going to come later. The opening chapters of the book of John show Him coming into that ministry.
Half of the book of John goes through these seven miracles, but the second half goes through the last week of Jesus’ life; the crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
One of the reasons to aspire to be a noble person is because you can find favor with others. You can find your relationships improved. If you are a noble worker, your employer will probably take notice of that. If you’re a business person and you are a noble person, word of mouth will spread and people will come to you.
How Do You Become A Noble Person?
Since we aren’t, we’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23) is there any hope for us at all? Of course there is!
When we think about nobility, we are a “Kingdom of Grace.” When you accept Jesus as Savior, you are born into God’s family and become royalty. You are joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. All the inheritance of His Father is ours, too.
If being born into the family is too difficult to comprehend, the Bible also says that He adopts us as sons and daughters. (Ephesians 1:5)
How Do You Get Adopted By God?
The Bible says that Jesus came to this earth in the flesh. (John 1:1-5) Whoever puts their trust in Him has the power and authority to become the sons of God. Come to Christ. Believe, and by doing that you become a child of God.
Isaiah says that our own works of righteousness are as filthy rags because of sin. (Isaiah 64:6) But we come to Christ, realizing that we need a Savior, and we call on Him. He comes into our hearts and we are born again, born into the family of God. We become children of God and Jesus puts His robe of righteousness on us. When that robe is put on us, the other robe disappears and we put on the righteousness of Christ. That’s how we’ll be able to enter into Heaven.
We need to study the Word. One place where the word “noble” is mentioned in the Bible is in the book of Acts. Paul was preaching at Thessalonica and they didn’t like his preaching. They tried to kill him and they ran him out of town. He went to a place called Berea and preached the Word of God to them. The Bible says that these people were nobler than the Thessalonians because they searched the Word daily to see if what Paul was saying was true. (Acts 17:1-12)
We should study the Word.
Erma Bombeck is one of my favorite authors. She once said,
“I received a letter from a single mother who had raised a son who was about to become a dad. Since he had no recollection of his own father, her question to me was “What do I tell him a father does?”
When my dad died in my ninth year, I, too, was raised by my mother, giving rise to the same question, “What do fathers do?” As far as I could observe, they brought around the car when it rained so everyone else could stay dry. They always took the family pictures, which is why they were never in them. They carved turkeys on Thanksgiving, kept the car gassed up, weren’t afraid to go into the basement, mowed the lawn, and tightened the clothesline to keep it from sagging. It wasn’t until my husband and I had children that I was able to observe firsthand what a father contributed to a child’s life. What did he do to deserve his children’s respect? He rarely fed them, did anything about their sagging diapers, wiped their noses or fannies, played ball, or bonded with them under the hoods of their cars.
What did he do?
He threw them higher than his head until they were weak from laughter. He cast the deciding vote on the puppy debate. He listened more than he talked. He let them make mistakes. He allowed them to fall from their first two-wheeler without having a heart attack. He read a newspaper while they were trying to parallel park a car for the first time in preparation for their driving test.
If I had to tell someone’s son what a father really does that is important, it would be that he shows up for the job in good times and bad times. He’s a man who is constantly being observed by his children. They learn from him how to handle adversity, anger, disappointment, and success.
He won’t laugh at their dreams no matter how impossible they might seem. He will dig out at 1 a.m. when one of his children runs out of gas. He will make unpopular decisions and stand by them. When he is wrong and makes a mistake, he will admit it. He sets the tone for how family members treat one another, members of the opposite sex, and people who are different than they are. By example, he can instill a desire to give something back to the community when its needs are greater than theirs.
A father has the potential to be a powerful force in the life of a child. Grab it! Maybe you’ll get a greeting card for your efforts. Maybe not. But it’s steady work.”
Fathers, I encourage you to be noble men. Mothers, I encourage you to be noble ladies, We can’t do it on our own, but aren’t you glad that you can come to Christ and you can be born again and you can receive the righteousness of Christ. It’s put into your account. You’re born into a royal family. You become a noble person. If you’re a Christian, you’re a noble person.
The word “Christian” means to be like Christ. We sometimes have a little bit of a problem trying to live up to that. But I want you to understand that if you’re a Christian, you’re in a royal family, and you ought to live like it.
You can be a noble person. Do your best and commit the rest to God. The more you do that more you’ll realize that it’s not your best that does it, it’s when God takes over.
You can be a noble person.