We've been in the Gospel of Luke since January. We'll be there through the rest of the year and early into next year. Today, we're in chapter seven, and we're going to look at the first 10 verses. So if you've got your Bible with you, hold that up. If it's your phone or your tablet, wave that at me. Great, and be sure to be ready to take some notes as we go along.
After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now, a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews asking him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation and he is the one who built us our synagogue." And Jesus went with them.
When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore, I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me. I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it."
When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him and, turning to the crowd that followed him, said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.
Who here is on Facebook? Yeah, I don't mean like right now, on Facebook in general. Yeah, some of you are liars, because I see your stuff out there. If you're on Facebook, it's not uncommon that one of your friends or acquaintances says, "Hey, I'm going through whatever turmoil. Would you send warm fuzzies, positive energy, teddy bears, love, and prayers my way?" What they're really looking for is a God-sized solution, but they don't know God, and so they're reaching out for somebody to intercede on their behalf.
If you've got friends who know a little bit about your faith, they may come to you and say, "Hey, I know you're kind of religious. Would you pray for me?" What they're looking for is somebody who has a connection to God to intercede on their behalf, and that's really what this story is about today.
So, after he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now, a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who is highly valued by him. A couple of things have been happening. Jesus has been teaching, he's been giving this discourse that we've been going through over the last few weeks, he's been performing miracles, there are people who are beginning to follow him, he has called out his apostles to represent him, and he's beginning to even get some persecution, some pushback from the Jewish leaders.
And so, he finishes his teaching, and he returns to Capernaum, which has really become his home base of operation. Now, the story is going to shift to this centurion. A centurion had a servant who is sick and at the point of death, who is highly valued by him. In the Roman army, a centurion was responsible for a hundred other soldiers. They were part of a battalion of six thousand individual soldiers, but their primary responsibility was to be a mediator between the Roman government and Roman military and the people of the occupied territories that they were in.
So, the job description for a centurion was that they'd be of sound mind, that they be someone who was personable, someone who is not a big risk-taker, but someone who would die at their post if called upon. So, what was really expected of them was that they would be very good at cross-cultural relations, and that they would be faithful to the Roman Empire, but also willing to help the people of the occupied territory live their lives in peace. And because of this, the Roman government realized it's not good for us to come in and change people's culture.
And so, what they would do is they would allow the other faiths to take place, the Jewish faith was allowed, they would allow Jews to worship in the synagogue, they weren't going to infringe on that, but they needed to put a commander in place who could interrelate with the Jewish people and keep the peace, and that's exactly who this gentleman is.
He is a centurion, his wages are about 15 times that of a regular soldier, so he gets paid well, he is well off because of his position, but what we find is, he had a servant who is sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. And this is where things get really interesting: a servant was considered nothing more than a piece of farm equipment. Ancient writings from the Roman culture give directions to landowners and farmers, and part of the direction is, "Go check your equipment every year: your equipment, your plow, your all of your other farm implements, your mules, and your servant. If your servant was sick or incapable of performing the duties that you would assign to them, you either let them go to die or you put them to death yourself. There was no legal recourse for that; the slave is nothing more than a farm implement."
And so, for this centurion to have compassion on someone who is in a lower status in life is, in itself, revolutionary. The thing that I want to challenge us with, when we study the centurion, is how easy it is for us to lose our compassion for people. So, especially if we have struggled at points in life, and we have, if you will, pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps, and we see people who are in a difficult place, sometimes we lose our compassion, we take on the mindset, "Well, why don't they do something about that?" and we lose our heart tug for that individual. This soldier could have easily done that; his servant was nothing more than a piece of farm equipment, and yet, he had a special place in his heart for this servant, and the servant had a real need.
And so, the thing that I want to first challenge us with is the compassion of our heart. Have we become so detached from the needs around us that we are of no value to the Kingdom of God in meeting those needs, or does it have to just come slamming into our world before we take notice? One of the things I think we can take away from this description is that we would have the same heart, that we never lose our compassion for people. That's the Master's example.
Now we get to verse 3. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews asking him to come and heal his servant. What we find is this: the centurion was beginning to get word of this Jesus, this teacher, whether it was because of the things he was teaching or the miracles he was doing, we don't know, but he was aware of who Jesus was, he was aware of the things Jesus was doing in the region.
So, the question is, who's talking about Jesus today? What is it that we are saying about Jesus? What is it that he's doing in our life that's worthy of speaking about? So many times, we just stay quiet, we keep it to ourselves, and again, you've got all these friends out there looking for hope, looking for answers, asking for warm fuzzies and lightning bolts because they're out of hope, they're looking for the answers we have, but we don't ever talk about it.
Here's the interesting dynamic, Phil, when we begin to talk about it, those conversations change. They become a private message: "Hey, I know you're kind of religious, could you pray for me?" Much better conversation. I have a friend, he was posting last night, "Do I pray to Jesus or do I pray to God?" And I have to describe my friend to you. What he's known for in life is, he's a pickup artist, which means he's learned psychological techniques for picking up women at bars. Very noble cause. He's into all kinds of spirituality. A few years ago, he and I were at a conference together, he was my roommate, he woke me up at five in the morning, tapping himself. I'm like, "What in the world are you doing?" "Oh, it's the Emotional Freedom Technique, I'm releasing positive energy for wealth and success and relationships and all that. Great. Well, tell me about the crystals on your neck." "Well, this one's for finance, and this one's for relationships, and this one's for health." And then, he and I spoke at a conference together eight years ago, and the first thing he did before he went on stage was he grabbed Carol and I, "You guys are religious, would you pray for me?" "Yes, I'll pray for you."
See, you're that person, you're that intermediary that some people are looking for, but if you don't ever talk about your faith, they don't ever know to approach you. We don't have to be on the street corner preaching, but let's at least talk about what God's doing in our life. He had heard about Jesus, in his mind, the religious leaders would be the people who could make the introduction. "Hey, would you approach Jesus and ask him to come heal my servant?"
And so, we move into verse four and five, and we see a kind of interesting dynamic take place. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue." So, the basis of their request to Jesus is this, "Hey, this centurion over here, he really loves us Jewish people. He doesn't get in the middle of our business, and in fact, he helped us build our synagogue. He's a great guy. Would you do us a favor and do something for his servant?" They're approaching Jesus saying he is worthy of your favor and he is worthy of your attention, and he deserves you to do something nice for him.
What we're going to see is that the centurion sees things really differently. Here's the challenge. Tell us, 75% of Americans say, "I'm a Christian." Does anybody believe that? Lots of heads going back and forth. No, because I think we all understand it's one thing to claim Christ, it's another thing to live Christ. The talk today is, "Hey, all roads lead to the same place." No, they do not. Jesus is the Son of God. He died on the cross for the sins of all mankind. He is the only way to peace with God, and he is the only way to heaven. Every religion does not teach that; they don't all go to the same place. The truth is, you can't claim Christ and not know Christ. It's a disconnect.
And here's what was happening with these leaders. They don't know Christ, they don't know his heart, so they're going to try and win his favor by this, "Centurion does lots of good things for us. He's a great guy, he takes care of us, he helped build the synagogue. You should do something for him." Jesus, as we move on, we see Jesus went with them.
Verse six, when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends saying to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof." Notice, the religious leader's approach was, "He's a great guy, shows up every week, pays for a lot of stuff." The centurion says, "I'm a Gentile. For you to enter my house is a defilement to you. For me to be in your presence is a defilement to you. I am unworthy for you to be here." So, I'm sending someone else.
See, when we really look at what happens with the people in our lives, when they say, "Hey, I think you're kind of religious, would you pray for me? My marriage is falling apart. Grandma's sick. My dog is unhealthy." Whatever the story is, what they're really saying is, "I don't think I'm worthy enough to approach the throne of God. Would you do it for me?" The truth is, none of us are worthy enough. Only Jesus is worthy. When he died on the cross, when he shed his blood for you and I, it's not because we deserved it, it's not because we earned it, it was done out of love, and it's only because of that that we are worthy to approach the throne of God. It is only because of that that we are declared righteous. What a beautiful thing that is.
He sent his friends, "Don't trouble yourself. I'm not worthy to even have you under my roof." The centurion, he's an amazing example of what humility looks like. "I don't deserve to be in your presence. I don't deserve for you to be in my house. But you're my only hope, and I'm asking if you will do this because I understand you have the authority to do this."
See, the reality, that's really the heart we should have when we approach the throne day by day. "God, I really don't deserve to be here. I didn't earn it. The only reason I'm righteous is because you've declared me righteous. But I know you have the authority, and you have the ability to do what I can't do for myself. Would you please do this thing?"
It's interesting. Thursday morning, a message went out in the men's group chat. If we would gather and just fast and pray for 24 hours for a person. What we were praying for is, they don't have many days left, and we were praying for their salvation. What a joy it was when I got a message yesterday morning that not only did the conversation take place, but that life was given to Jesus.
Are we pleading for the people around us who are dying, not just a physical death, but a spiritual death? Statistics tell us in Wichita, less than 10% of the population will be in a church today. And it's not because it's summer. Now, we'll go to the coffee shop, and we'll complain and gripe about our society and about our city, and will complain and gripe about what government is doing, but nothing changes till hearts change.
Are we begging God's intervention in the hearts of people? "God, I'm not worthy to bring this to you, but you're worthy to change it. Would you change my city? Would you change my nation? Would you change my neighborhood?" Every one of us has people in our lives that need God to do something amazing. Are we keeping their names in front of Him?
In my office, I have a prayer board where I write down things that I'm praying for. The whole right side of the board is people who I don't believe are saved, and I pray, and I pray, and I pray, and I pray. And I've been praying for some of those people for decades. But what's exciting is how many names I've gotten to take off the board over the years.
One of my favorites here recently, it's a man and woman from Las Vegas. They're engaged, met them eight years ago, began to pray, "God, do something in their lives." Into some crazy spiritual stuff. My favorite one, she went to a weekend retreat where they drank some kind of hallucinogenic stuff, and she puked all weekend. I said, "And that brought you closer to what? Besides death."
But then, last year, when COVID came along, I get this excited call, "Carl, Carl, Carl, I guess you got to tell you. I gave my life to Jesus, and my fiancé, seeing such a change in me, he wants what I have." So they were out here in March. As soon as they got back to Vegas, they both got baptized. I didn't make that happen. Only God can do that, but I didn't give up putting their names in front of Him.
Question is, are we that passionate about those who are perishing? Verse 7 and 8, "Therefore I did not presume to come to you, but say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me, and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
More than anything, this centurion recognized the authority of Jesus Christ. Do we recognize the authority of Jesus? Do we stand firm in his authority? Do we pray, understanding the authority of the one we seek? Sometimes, I think we pray very weak, timid prayers. See, the centurion knew, "If I can just speak to him, if I can just put my request before him, all he has to do is say a word, and my servant will be healed."
Do we have that kind of faith, or do we come back in defeat? Are we praying boldly, with confidence? See, one of the things that we find here is, he had heard about Jesus, and he had listened to what he had heard, and he acted on what he knew.
I've said this to you before; I'm going to put it before you again. If you really want to see a lot of prayers answered, stop talking, and ask God, "What do you want me to pray?" Now, that seems like a no-brainer, huh? "What do you want me to pray?" What's great about that is, God will give you His heart, and when you begin to pray with God's heart, you see prayers answered. That's what He wanted to do. He's bringing you on the journey.
This centurion stopped talking and listened. "Jesus, I know you can do something about this." He recognized authority. "I know you have the authority to speak the word, and everything will change." Right to him, a man said under authority, with soldiers under me, and I say to one, "Go," and he goes, and another one, "Come," and he comes, and to my servant, "Do this," and he does it.
Think about this: when we cry out to God, He created creation with a word. Jesus was healing people by speaking a word. However, we can't hear the word if we're the one doing all the talking. Be still and listen.
Verse 9, when Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." There's two instances in Scripture where Jesus commended somebody's faith, and neither one of them were Jews. One was the Syrophoenician woman, and the other was this centurion.
Jesus goes on in what he says here, and we find that in the parallel account from Matthew. So if you'll turn to Matthew chapter 8, verses 11 and 12 with me, and we're actually going to start at verse 10, you'll find Jesus actually had a few other things to say to his audience.
When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, "Truly I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
What's interesting about the things Jesus said is he's commending the centurion about his faith. The question I have for you is, what would Jesus say about your faith? Would he point to you as an example, or would you not make the mention? He also addresses one other group, that's the pretenders, those who say, "I'm a Christian," but don't live Christ, those who claim to be righteous but aren't.
In Jesus' day, it was the Jewish religious leaders. What Jesus is saying to them is, "These Gentile heathens out here are going to be at your place at the table because they get it, and you, on the other hand, are going to get dismissed because I don't even know you."
The question for us becomes, what does our faith look like? What is the assessment of our faith? Are we pretenders? We know how to say the right things, we show up to church, we give a little tithe, we live good lives, are we people who searched out the heart of God, people who understand, "I am unworthy, I don't deserve anything I have, I don't deserve to be forgiven, I don't deserve your grace, and yet, in your love for me, you lavish all of those things on me"?
I wake up every morning, realize I failed you again the day before, and yet you still love me. You put me in places I don't deserve to be, you elevate my status, not because I've earned it, not because I deserve it, but because of your love. The Apostle Paul said, "Your mercies are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."
The centurion understood, "I don't think I'm worthy to even approach you, but I know you can do something about the situation." There are people who are turning to you on a regular basis, asking for your advice. As a business mentor, I often sit across the table from other businessmen, and they say, "What do you think? What should I do here?" And after I give them my best, I always tell them, "But you don't really need that. Let's pray, so you get God's best. My wisdom is not good enough. You don't need my best ideas."
Anybody else here relate to this? My worst problems in life have come from my best thinking. Can anybody relate? Put up your hands. Be bold. Boldness gets rewarded. Great. So, what's our solution? "I think I'll go do some more good thinking to get my way out of this." Yeah, that hasn't worked too well. And then, finally, it's too much. "God, save me."
Maybe we should think less and ask more. "God, what would you have me do? How should I be praying today? What is it that you have for me today? Who do I need to speak to today? Let me be useful in your hands today."
And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well. The centurion was expecting nothing less. When I put this in the hands of Jesus, something amazing is going to happen. Do you trust Him with everything? Do you realize He can move mountains you can't even begin to think about moving?
So we have to say, "Well, where does that kind of faith come from?" If you'll go to Romans 10:17 with me, you quoted it with Shane earlier, faith is built on one thing, and that's hearing the word of God. "Romans 10:17, so faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." In fact, if you back up a few verses, it goes into, "How will they call on Him in whom they've not believed? And how are they to believe in Him whom they've never heard? And how are they to hear without somebody preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?" As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news."
Every single one of us has people in our lives, people around us, that if today were the day of judgment, they would be condemned. How serious are you about interceding for them? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. If you're not ever talking about what Jesus is doing in your life, how will anyone ever know they can turn to Him?
So, I'm going to ask you this, your little homework assignment here. Take a moment and write down three names, people you know, if today was the day, they wouldn't make it. And I want you to begin to pray for them every week. Write their name, stick it on your refrigerator, your mirror, your whiteboard, wherever it is you need to be, and continue to hold them up before God because the thing I've seen over and over again, God cares more about them than you do, and He will move mountains to touch their heart. But the great thing is, you get to be a participant, a spectator, watching Him work.
There's nothing else we get to take with us when this life is over, except those we bring along. That's the inheritance. Some of us haven't invested in the lives of people because we're too busy, we're too successful, we're too preoccupied with our junk to care about what's going on in your life, but that's not the heart of the Master. The Master doesn't treat people like a piece of farm equipment. Everyone is useful in the eyes of God.
As we close this morning, I just want to share the message with you. No one is worthy of God's love. No one is worthy of God's forgiveness. Jesus paid the price. The standard is holiness. It's not living a good life; it's holiness. You and I don't hit the mark on that one, but Jesus did. It was His blood that was shed to pay for your sin and my sin so that we might have new life.
We're not worthy, but we have been invited to the table. You don't have to choose it. A lot of people reject it. A lot of people are pretending, "I go to church, I'd call myself a Christian." It doesn't matter what you would call yourself. What would Jesus call you? "I know you" or "Depart from me, I don't know you"? Only two options.
So today, I want to invite you, don't be like the man we were praying for this week, waiting till your deathbed, racing the clock of life, hoping you make it. Nail it down today. "I know I'm sinful. I know I need a Savior. I know I don't deserve it. I know I didn't earn it, but Jesus, you did the hard work, and I don't want to miss out on what you've offered me." I repent of my sins, and I ask you to be the Lord of my life.
If you've been His follower for a long time, question for you is, have you lost your compassion for people? Does the lostness and brokenness around you break your heart? Does it move you to tears? Does it move you to prayer? Will you commit to start praying for the people in your world, in your life, in your neighborhood, that don't know Jesus?
I want to leave you with one last little story on the power of prayer. We moved into our house three years ago. I haven't known any of my neighbors moving in. The guy on my right, his UPS packages always come to my house, and mine always go to his house, so I started to meet his family. The guy on the left, I always see on his lawnmower. We were selling my daughter's car. He waves me over and offers to sell me his pickup, and I bought it. We met each other.
The new neighbor across the street, he's a car guy. When we were selling my daughter's car, he came over, introduced himself. People on the corner, their cat gets out of their house and stows away in the back of my house, and they have to always come get Walter. None of them go to church. So I started praying, "God, give me inroads into their lives." He's done that.
Now, here's where it gets really cool. There's a group of six men that have been studying the Bible with me on Sunday nights at the house. One of them used to work with the neighbor over to the left, that's always mowing his lawn, that I bought the pickup from. He's a person of peace. The neighbor on the other side, the other day, one of the other men showed up with his kids for our kids, and in tow was my other neighbor's daughter.
Okay, God, you're working. I'm going to keep praying for them. You use me, however you need to use me. The previous neighbor ran an auto shop out of his garage. I met him because he kept running over my mailbox. It's kingdom stuff, but are we participating in the kingdom? Are we leaving that for somebody else to do?
Some of you have amazing influence in your spheres. You get to talk to a lot of people on a regular basis. Are they hearing about Jesus? Are they hearing about how great He is? Or have you kind of pushed that off to the side? There's my church life and my other life. No, there's just life. Jesus gets to come to all of it.
