As we learn of the centurion’s faith, how the Lord Jesus commended, when he believed that the Lord Jesus had authority over sickness. And may your faith be stirred to know that the Lord of Calvary has authority over everything in your life as well.
Lord, Say a Word, Speak a Word, Say a Word and we are going to see what the Lord is going to speak to us this night from Mathew Chapter 8. [New International Version]
5. When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help.
6. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
7. Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
8. The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.
9. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. (Such great faith)
11. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
12. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13. Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.
We see, over here in this chapter, that there was a man who went to Jesus, who wanted a certain thing from the Lord; and in this case, it’s healing. And if you look at this chapter, you will see that Jesus healed many people and this is one of the healing that took place. And, different types of healing take place in the gospels. Where certain people, Jesus would lay his hands on, for some people he would rebuke that sickness or that demon, and there are different approaches. For certain people, God would just say, “Go, do this”. And when they did that, their sickness went, like the lepers who came to Him, Jesus said, “Go and show yourselves to the priest.”(Luke 17:14) And even before this, we see how a leper came to Jesus and how Jesus healed him. Jesus touched him and He healed him.
What is so special about this passage that we just read now? Form verse 8 to verse 13, what is so special about it? This is very different and the Lord spoke to me once about this, and this talks about faith, and we all know when we read, that this is about faith. And Jesus very explicitly says over here that He has not seen such great faith, even in Israel. So, what is so special about this? What did the centurion do, that His own people did not do? And, that’s what we are going to focus on tonight. And, we are going to focus on the Word of Jesus.
The centurion said, “Lord, say a Word and my servant will be healed.” What is that word? And if you look at it, the centurion says that, “I am a centurion and I have soldiers under me, and when I say, ‘Go’, one person goes. When I say, ‘Come’, he comes.” And basically, he is saying that they obey me, and I have authority. So, what is that have to do with Jesus saying a word? Let’s read that verse again to get the real meaning of the verse; what the Lord is speaking to us this night. He says, verse 9, “For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
And verse 10, Jesus heard this and He is saying that He has not found such great faith. Now, what is the faith that Jesus is talking about over here? What kind of faith is this? Is He talking about the faith of this man in Jesus, where he thinks that “Ok, Jesus is going to say some word like a mantra, where He says a word like kaboom or something like that.” And where his servant is going to be healed somewhere else. No! He really means what he is saying by giving an illustration of his own life. He is just relating to his everyday, day-to-day life experience and he is telling Jesus, “Lord, I am a man who has authority and I have soldiers under me.” And He is saying that “When I say something, they do it. So when you say something”…You know what this man is saying, “The sickness has to obey You.” You are …he had that revelation. This man somehow had that revelation, that understanding, that Jesus had the authority over sickness. Jesus had authority over diseases. It’s not like he said some word and that immediately somewhere else, he got healed or delivered. It’s not like a word without meaning that He’s going to say. He believed in the authority of Jesus Christ. He believed in the power that Jesus Christ had, the power over sickness, the power over demonic spirits, and that is the reason why he was able to bring out that example with his life and he was able to believe that. Because he believed that Jesus had authority, he was able to tell Jesus, “Lord, say a word and my servant will be healed”. May the Lord speak to us this night.
What does God want us to learn this night? What does He really want us to learn? We may have read this chapter several times before, and all we would have gotten is, “I need to have faith, I need to have more faith. If I have more faith, I’ll get answers to my prayer.” But what is faith? What kind of faith is God talking about? What is the faith that we see in the centurion, this really commendable faith that he had, that was truly commended by Jesus Christ? He marveled, it said. If Jesus marveled at his faith then that is some kind of faith. So, what is that faith? We need to know, right? In order for us to know what kind of faith he had, in order for us to have that kind of faith to receive anything from the Lord, we need to know what he really had.
The revelation, the true revelation of Who God is and the authority that the Lord has over the spirits, the demonic spirits, the hearts of the people. And it says in the Bible, the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord and He turns it like rivers of water wherever, whichever direction He wants it to turn, He can turn it. So, God has everything under His control and unless Jesus Christ is God, He won’t have that kind of authority over sickness, over nature, over man, over the hearts of people, knowing the thoughts of people, and this man, this centurion had that revelation. He had the revelation that Jesus is a man who had the authority over sickness. And if He says a word over here, he knew that the servant will be healed over there and he had that connection. He knew that this word of Jesus has that much power, that much authority! He had the authority over sickness.
So in our lives, in our day-to-day lives, when we face a problem, when we face sickness, when we face an impossible situation, how do we look at it? How do we look at God in our situation? When we take our prayers to the Lord, we are coming just like how the centurion came to the Lord. We are bringing our problems, we are bringing our sickness, we are bringing our difficulties before the Almighty God, we are bringing it. And we are not seeing a form in front of us as the centurion saw. And, I can say to an extent, seeing Jesus as a human being for the centurion to even believe that this human being right in front of me can say something, and my servant who is sick somewhere else can be healed, it took a lot more faith. And for us, we have God’s Word, we have seen all the miracles that God has done through His Word, throughout the entire Bible and we have the Holy Spirit now, and we should have even a greater revelation and the faith that will even surpass that of the centurion’s faith.
And when we look at this, when we look at this portion, we should know one thing. When we come to Jesus; I love that verse in the Bible it says, He who comes to God must believe, (must believe, must believe) that He is, and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). That means we have to first believe in the existence of God, we have to first believe in the power that God has. We must believe that He is the Great I Am, that He can, He will. And that’s when we come to him and we say, “Lord, I know you can, Lord, I know You can do all things. And I know when You say a word, my servant will be healed. If you say a word, our problems will go away. If you say a word, my sickness can go away.” If we come to God with wavering faith, if we come to the Lord and we say, “Lord I have this problem, and this problem is so big and I don’t know what to do and I feel I am going to drown in this problem, and I don’t know what to do, Lord help me.” If we keep our problems bigger than the Lord Jesus Christ, He will not be able to do anything. He will not be able to do anything.
But on the other hand, we can come to the Lord as a child and say, “Lord, I have this problem, Lord this is difficult. Lord, I am not able to understand this but say a word, Lord. I know You can do it. Lord, I cannot do anything but when You say a word, You have power over this circumstance, You have authority over this Lord. Lord, I come to You.” When we come to the Lord with that attitude, knowing who God is, coming to Him, believing who He is, and then the second part is that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6) God will answer our prayers. God will definitely answer our prayers.
And this centurion, do you think, he came to Jesus thinking that, “Ok, even though He has authority, even though Jesus has authority, He may not answer my prayers.? He may not answer my request?” No! He came with such confidence that when he tells Jesus Christ this, He is going to do it. That means that He had confidence in the character of Jesus Christ that He is a compassionate God, He is a loving God and He knows our hearts. It’s not only that He has authority, but He has compassion. You can have all the authority you want to have but if you don’t have the heart to help, all the authority can stand in one place, and nothing will be done, nothing will be given. It’s like people who are kings, who have all the authority. If they think, they can make a poor man sit in the palace but they will not. God is not like that. God has all the authority and He has the heart to bless you. God has the heart to lift you.
When we feel like we are going to drown, we feel like, “Lord, I feel the carpet under me is going to come out. I feel as if the earth is shaking. Lord, I feel like I am going to just go down. I feel like I am going to drown. All we need to do is raise our hand and say, “Jesus, help.” That’s all. Two words, “Jesus, help.” By us saying, “Jesus, help”, we are acknowledging that He can help. And by us saying “Jesus, help”, we are acknowledging that He can hear. By us saying, “Jesus, help”, we acknowledge that He will help and the Lord will, definitely, definitely do it. He will answer us.
So, when we come back to this same passage on the faith of this centurion, we are going to see what Jesus said over here. How he commended this centurion’s faith and though this message is s short message, we are going to go home with one point driven straight into our heart, into our spirit what the Lord wants to convey to us is the faith of the centurion. When we go before the Almighty God in prayer, when we go and stand before the Almighty God in prayer, we need to know that He has the authority over everything, every situation.
Amen and blessed be the name of the Lord. Oh Father in heaven, grant Your children peace Lord, as they put their trust completely in You. Heavenly Father, those who do not know You, draw them by Your Holy Spirit so that they can have a relationship with You and that they may see the wonders of the living God in their lives. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!
