Awakened by Pain: How Suffering Leads Us to Saving Faith
Based on the podcast from September 27, 2026
Pain leads to saving faith when it strips away every other option and leaves us with nothing to lean on but the word of Jesus Christ. In John 4:43-54, a royal official with a dying son comes to Jesus with a desperate prayer, and he walks away holding nothing but a promise. That promise turns out to be enough, not only for his son's body but for his whole family's souls.
Most of us know the move this father makes. The phone call comes, the diagnosis lands, the job disappears, and suddenly we are praying harder than we have in years. Pastor Jan Vezikov, lead pastor of Mosaic Boston, calls this being awakened by pain.
But pain does not automatically produce real faith. It can just as easily produce a faith that wants rescue from its circumstances and nothing more. In this passage, Pastor Jan traces three kinds of faith, and only one of them is saving faith.
Real Versus Fake Faith: Why Wanting a Miracle Is Not Enough
The Apostle John records seven signs of Jesus in his Gospel, and signs exist to point past themselves. Pastor Jan compares them to the lawyer billboards along Interstate 93. The exception is the Citgo sign in Kenmore Square, a Boston fixture nobody looks at and thinks about buying gas.
John does not want the miracles of Jesus to become that kind of fixture. In Galilee, the crowds welcome Jesus as a savior from circumstance: fix the Romans, fix the taxes, turn our water into wine again. That is the line between real versus fake faith; one wants Jesus, and the other only wants what he can do.
Into that crowd comes a royal official from Capernaum, likely a member of the court of Herod Antipas (Rome's tetrarch over Galilee), whose little boy is dying. Jesus answers in John 4:48: "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe." The "you" is plural, exposing a whole region whose faith rested on miracles.
Pastor Jan has watched real versus fake faith play out up close. A man once showed up at church on fire, professing faith, until it came out he had just been arrested for dealing drugs; when his circumstances did not change, he walked away. Even Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, spent three years beside Jesus and still rejected him.
Try this today: reread your last few prayers and ask whether you were asking for Jesus or only for his help. Sorting out real versus fake faith starts there.
If you want to see what Mosaic believes the Bible teaches about faith and salvation, you can read more here.
What Does Trusting God Through Pain Look Like in a Desperate Prayer?
The royal official is not a man who begs. He holds power and position, yet when he hears Jesus is in Cana, he leaves Capernaum and covers roughly 25 miles, a marathon distance, most likely on foot. Pastor Jan asks the honest question: would this man ever have come to Jesus if his son had not been dying?
When he reaches Jesus, he keeps pleading: "Sir, come down before my child dies" (John 4:49). This is a desperate prayer from a father who has run out of options. It is also the beginning of trusting God through pain, even though his faith is still incomplete.
Pastor Jan names two false assumptions hidden in the request. The father believes Jesus must be physically present to heal, and he believes that if the boy dies, it is over. Almost true faith still tries to dictate terms to God.
Jesus refuses the terms and offers something better: "Go; your son will live." There is no escort and no bedside visit, only a sentence to hold onto. The man believed the word Jesus spoke and started home, which is what trusting God through pain looks like when there is nothing left to see.
Here is a small step for today: bring your own desperate prayer to God without scripting the answer. Tell him plainly what you are afraid of, then practice trusting God through pain by leaving the outcome with him.
You do not have to figure this out alone; Mosaic's Community Groups meet throughout the week to pray and carry burdens together, and you can connect here.
Why Salvation Through Jesus Alone Is the Faith That Saves
On the road home, the official's servants meet him with news: the boy is recovering. The fever broke at the seventh hour the day before, about 1 p.m., the exact moment Jesus spoke.
Martin Luther, the sixteenth-century German Reformer, described saving faith in three parts: notitia (knowing the facts), assensus (agreeing they are true), and fiducia (personally trusting). Pastor Jan compares fiducia to a youth retreat trust fall, which he will never attempt unless Jesus and a couple of apostles are catching. Faith shifts your center of gravity to Christ, and salvation through Jesus alone means no one else can catch you.
His word is an extension of himself; he is the Creator who speaks and things change. He came to save that father from something worse than a fever: the wrath of God against sin. The miracle of miracles is that the father believed, and his whole household with him.
Pastor Jan once prayed over a dying girl whose doctor later called her recovery a certifiable miracle; he expected a revival, and nobody changed. C.S. Lewis, the British author, wrote in A Grief Observed that "only a real risk tests the reality of belief."
The healing points to a greater sign: to save this son, another Son would not be spared. John 3:16 and Romans 8:32 say the Father gave his own Son for us, which is the heart of salvation through Jesus alone.
Before the day ends, read one promise of Jesus in the Gospel of John and pray it back to him as the thing you choose to trust. Taking him at his word is how salvation through Jesus alone becomes your own confidence.
How Pain Leads to Saving Faith: Three Kinds of Faith in John 4
Pastor Jan framed the passage around three kinds of faith, each with its own prayer.
1. Fake Faith: Jesus, Save Me From My Circumstances
What it looks like: Coming to Jesus for a fix to health, money, or legal trouble, and leaving when the fix does not arrive.
Why it matters: Jesus does not entrust himself to people who only want his power, as John 2:23-25 shows.
2. Almost True Faith: Jesus, I Am Desperate
What it looks like: A desperate prayer that is sincere but still dictates how and where God must act.
Why it matters: Desperation brings us close to Jesus, but it has to become trust in his word.
3. True Faith: Jesus, Save Me From My Sins
What it looks like: Taking Jesus at his word and walking home with nothing else to hold.
Why it matters: This is saving faith, the kind that carried an entire household from spiritual death to life.
Looking for a Church in Brookline That Takes God at His Word?
Pain has a way of exposing what our faith is really resting on, and that discovery can feel lonely, humbling, and frightening all at once. You do not have to sort through it by yourself, because Mosaic Boston gathers every Sunday at 9:15 and 11:15 a.m. at 20 Chapel Street inside Longwood Towers, steps from the Green Line D Longwood stop. Whether you live in Brookline or Jamaica Plain, commute into the Longwood Medical Area, or call anywhere in greater Boston home, from Norfolk County to Suffolk County, there is a seat for you and people who will take your questions seriously.
What Is Your Faith Resting On?
The royal official came to Jesus for a cure and left with something far greater: saving faith for himself and his whole household. Pain awakened him and drove him to a desperate prayer, but it was the word of Jesus that saved him. As Pastor Jan put it, every time we open Scripture and believe it, we are taking Jesus at his word, and that word travels farther than 25 miles.
Come find us on a Sunday morning in Brookline, where you can hear the Bible taught plainly, plan your visit here.
When you are ready to tell us a little about yourself or ask a question, fill out a connection card, take the next step here.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Yes, and Scripture shows him doing it often. In John 4, a powerful royal official would likely never have sought Jesus if his son had not been dying. Pain does not guarantee faith, but it can strip away false securities so we finally see our need for Christ.
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Bring your fear to God honestly, the way the royal official did, without scripting how he must answer. Hold onto what he has promised, including that the Father who gave his own Son for us will not abandon us (Romans 8:32). Ask others in your church to pray with you so you are not carrying it alone.
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Praying in a crisis is not proof either way, but it is worth examining what you are asking for. Fake faith wants Jesus to fix circumstances, while true faith trusts him to save you from sin. Scripture invites us to examine ourselves, and that honest look is often where real faith begins.
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The second sign is Jesus healing a royal official's dying son in John 4:43-54 simply by speaking. Like every sign in John's Gospel, it points beyond the miracle to who Jesus is. It also points ahead to the Father giving his own Son on the cross.
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Jesus was addressing the Galileans as a whole, since the "you" is plural. He was exposing a faith that rested on miracles instead of on his word and his person. His gentle rebuke pushed the royal official toward trusting Jesus himself.