A skeptic is someone who shows doubt or disbelief. They are not ready to accept someone else’s account of something but want to see for themselves. They are generally critical and analytical. They need visible proof for what they believe. We live in a world full of skeptics, and sometimes I am one of those people. However, even a skeptic can become a person who places faith in something they cannot see. Christians do it all the time. We cannot see what the Holy Spirit does in the heart of a man who surrenders to Jesus as their Savior, but we can see the effects. We cannot see the wind, but we can certainly see the effects.
In John 4: 46-54 we have the account of the Nobleman whose son was sick, wanting Jesus to come to his house and heal his son. Jesus was in Cana, which was about a day’s journey from Capernaum when walking. He was called a Nobleman because he was of the royal family and an officer of the court. This man was probably accustomed to asking for something and getting it. Thus, He was probably shocked when Jesus did not return to his house with him. According to verse 47, his son was at the point of death. This father was desperate for Jesus to heal his son, just like he had heard about him healing others.
Jesus questions the Nobleman in verse 48 as to his belief. Jesus asks him, “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” Jesus was challenging his belief. The man was insisting that he come to his house. He was skeptical that anything could be done from so far away. In my mind, I can see the urgency and desperation of this father. He knew Jesus could heal, but he failed to see the magnitude of Jesus’ power. He did not understand he was talking to God in the flesh.
John 4:46–49 “So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death. Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die.”
This man tried to convince Jesus that if he did not come, his son would die. Yet, he obeyed when Jesus told him to go home and that his son was alive. In verse 50, the man believed. As he left, I am sure he had very mixed feelings. He was headed home with no proof that his son would live. However, he obeyed Jesus. While he was on his way home, he met his servants, and they told him his son was healed. After asking questions of his servants to determine when his son revived, he knew it was the same time that Jesus had said, “Thy son liveth.”
John 4:50-54 “Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee.”
Are you skeptical that God will answer your prayers? When you ask God to take charge of a situation, do you say amen and then revert back to trying to figure out a way to solve your problem? How about praying for the salvation of others? Are you surprised when they surrender to Jesus as Lord of their lives? How often do you pray but do not truly believe God will answer your prayers?
It is time we as Christians pray and then respond as if God has already answered. We do not need God to spell out the details; we just need to have faith to believe He will answer. We need to pray the prayer that Paul prayed in Ephesians 3:14-21, which he prayed for the Christians at Ephesus. He is able to answer above all that we can ever dream, but we must lose the skepticism and place our entire faith in Him. Do not be skeptical, be a believer.
Ephesians 3:14-21 “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.”
