WHAT IS GREAT FAITH?
Luke 7:1-10 - June 22, 2003
LUKE 7:1-10
71When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, "This man deserves to have you do this, 5because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue." 6So Jesus went with them.
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: "Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8For 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."
9When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel." 10Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.
Dearest Christian Friends and Fellow-Redeemed:
Today we are going to look at faith and what it is. If you were to ask people what is faith, you might receive all kinds of different answers. It is something they put their trust in. It is where they place their confidence. This is where the definitions differ quite a bit. We know that a Christian faith puts its confidence and trust in God and God alone. From the Book of Hebrews we read: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see"(HEBREWS 11:1). Our faith is based in the present but also looks forward to the future, knowing that God has provided for all things. Today we are going to look at: What is great faith? We don’t want to make any mistake though. Saving faith is saving faith. It makes no difference if it is a saving faith of a child, a saving faith of a teenager or an adult. Saving faith is enough to get any believer into heaven.
Today in our text as you listen, you probably heard the example of the centurion who Jesus is amazed at because of his great faith. Jesus is amazed at this great faith. So our question and theme:
What is Great Faith?
I. It is not self-centered,
II. But it is Christ-centered,
III. And it humbly trusts God.
I. Great faith is not self-centered
We have the setting of this in the first part of our text "1When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum." If you look at the verses of the chapters before chapter 7, you would see that Jesus had preached many things to the people. He was in Capernaum, which is in the northern part of the promised land. It is on the west side of the Sea of Galilee. We hear of Capernaum and know that Jesus spent much time there, preaching and teaching and doing miracles. Jesus did all this near Capernaum because He was not accepted in His hometown. The Jewish people were not always excited to have Jesus around. So He went to the north and preached and taught.
Then we are told about the centurion: "2There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die." There are a couple of interesting things to note. First of all, the centurion (you will find century in that word which means 100 hundred years) was in charge of a group of men, of soldiers, from at least 50 up to 100. The Roman government employed the centurion. He was in Capernaum to make sure that there was law and order. His day-to-day activity kept him busy keeping track of these 100 soldiers who were to be working in the city keeping the peace. So when it came to a servant, what is amazing is that the centurion usually did not have time to be bothered with such a trivial household matter. He usually had someone else take care of those household servants, but we find that this servant was highly valued by the centurion. He took time out to care for those who cared for him. His servant was sick.
We see that this centurion lived a life that wasn’t just centered on himself, but was centered around others. In fact when they went to plead his case, the Jewish elders said to Jesus: "This man deserves to have you do this, 5because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue." Another amazing fact, it wasn’t just the servant’s illness that brings out the centurion’s concern for others. He wasn’t only concerned about his servant, but he was concerned all the time about those around him. He built the synagogue for the people. This was strange for a centurion who worked for the Roman government. Usually, they did not do that. He didn’t love himself, but those whom he served.
It is quite a refreshing change from the society in which we live. We know that in our dealings from day to day with people in this world that they are very self-concerned, very selfish, and very self-centered. The fact is we can’t expect the world to get any better. The Lord has told us that the world will get much worse before the end of time, before Judgment Day. Paul wrote to Timothy and he says the times will become very bad and then he goes on in verse 2: "People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy"(2 TIMOTHY 3:2). I stop there, but the list goes on for two more verses describing the depravity of man. As we look at that, we see that this describes our society very accurately: that people are lovers of money, lovers of themselves, boastful and proud. Turn on the TV and watch the news stories about sports figures, movie stars or even the news media itself. You see how much they are boastful and proud. At times that sin creeps into our lives and affects us. We live in this world and it is hard to escape. It is hard to escape how the world is, because we too have our sinful flesh.
The Lord wants us to remember that we also have great faith. First of all, we have saving faith, and then we have a faith that grows and is strengthened by hearing God’s Word. We are to use that great faith, not to serve ourselves, but to look at the needs of others and what they need. That is what the centurion did. This is exactly what we are to do in this world as believers. Paul writes in Galatians: "You, my brothers, were called to be free. (He makes that statement first because we have been set free from the power of sin. We have been set free from the power of Satan and even from the power of death. Now with that great freedom which is ours in this world but not many others have, we are to use it.) But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love"(GALATIANS 53). That is great faith to serve one another in love--to go against what the world would do which only wants to take care of itself and is only very self-centered.
The Lord says: "What is great faith?" It is faith that is not self-centered, but it is faith that is Christ-centered.
II. Great faith is Christ-centered
This is amazing to Jesus as this centurion wasn’t raised as a believer, wasn’t born into the Jewish nation. In fact it was just the opposite. He grew up in Rome where they worshiped many false gods and had little to do with Christianity. He was sent to this outpost town of Capernaum, and he was to represent the Roman government. He wasn’t to dabble in the affairs of religion. What did we read already? This man deserves to have you do this, 5because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue. 6So Jesus went with them. He loved the nation there, and he loved the Jewish people. He built their synagogue, because he didn’t care what others thought. He cared what Christ thought. His life, because of faith, was Christ centered.
That is the reason Jesus tells this account. We are told the centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to Him asking Him to come and heal his servant. He didn’t send the servant back to Rome where there might be better doctors, but he sent for Jesus. He knew that Jesus was the Savior of the world. Jesus was also the one the people talked about and had done great miracles that healed the lame and the blind. The centurion put his trust and confidence not in what his government could do for him, but what Christ could do for him. Again, Jesus was amazed at this great faith, because the centurion certainly was putting his job security into great jeopardy--the standard of the Roman government on one hand and yet on the other hand to say, "I am going to put my trust and confidence, my allegiance in Christ." But his faith was a great faith, because it was Christ-centered.
Certainly, all of us here today value the fact that Christ is the center and foundation of our Christian faith. Yet, again, we spend a lot of time in this world, working in the world, living in the world, celebrating in the world, than we do sitting in the pews here on Sunday or reading our Bibles at home or sitting in Bible study. Sometimes the things of this world creep in and affect our lives more than we might realize. You have heard me carry on about the fact of when you open up the newspaper and you watch the news, what do we learn about? We learn about fear. Today, the world tries to scare people, scare people about the storm that might be coming or not coming. They scare people about different diseases and epidemics throughout the world. The list goes on and on, doesn’t it? I think worse. Just lately what I have noticed is that they have added a little bit more. They have added doubt now with fear. They have us doubt the very fabric of society whether it can endure, to have us doubt our nation whether it can stand in this world. We go to war and all the doubters come out and say, "We can not win. Our nation is crushed." But that is not true. This doubt may creep into our thinking from time to time. We need to be like the centurion and get back and focus on that cross of Christ. Jesus told His disciples how people end up ruining their lives by doubt, fear and worry. In Matthew 6, he says, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own"(MATTHEW 6:34). Each day has enough trouble of its own. He says, "Remember Christ who takes care of all our troubles, not just earthly, but spiritually which is the most important."
Another example that we have that we might call great faith, although Jesus never did (He had not been born yet), was the Apostle Paul. We look at the life of the Apostle Paul and we find that he was much like the centurion. He was well to do, well educated and had a good job. He went around finding Christians and dragging them off to prison so that they might face judgment. Yet, we know that his life was dramatically changed when God reached down and dragged him out of his darkness into His wonderful light. Paul’s life was changed, and he gave it all up so that he might serve Christ by preaching the Gospel, so that he might proclaim Christ crucified. Even though he had enjoyed all the comforts of this life, he was like the centurion who was in this lonely outpost in Capernaum. In Philippians, Paul says: "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ"(PHILIPPIANS 3:8). He realized that if he did not have Christ in his life, he would have nothing. He would be lost for time and for eternity. Again in our society, which is a free society, people can worship and do what they want and believe and say what they want. We can find many who Christ is not the center of faith.
So it is all the more important for us to keep our focus on Christ who is the very center of our faith, because that makes our faith great. It is a great faith because it is not self-centered, but it is Christ-centered and it humbly trusts in God.
III. Great faith humbly trust God
Here is the key thrust that Jesus was amazed at; that the others were following Him might learn. We look at the centurion and we hear what he says. He knows the power that he has, but he knows that his power fails in comparison to the power of Jesus. The centurion said, 8For 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." The centurion says, "In the morning when I get up I tell the soldiers what to do and they scatter and they do it, and I tell my servants what to do and they do it." Now, when his servant was sick he sent for Jesus, and what does he say? He says, "But say the word, and my servant will be healed." He trusted in God. He trusted in Jesus, the Savior of mankind. The centurion did not in a proud and boastful way, but in a very humble way, because he also says, "Jesus was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: ’Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.’" This was a proud Roman citizen who knew that as Rome looked at the world, everybody else was second-class; and as Rome looked at the world, Christians were even below second-class citizens.
Now this powerful Roman citizen says to the leader of the Christian religion, "I don’t deserve to have you come here." Then listen to this. He says: 7"That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you." Here is a centurion where people would come and tremble in his presence, because he had power and authority to do what he wanted when he wanted to. Yet, he doesn’t consider himself worthy to speak to Jesus. After all this is said and done, 9When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.’ Jesus was amazed. He marveled at the great faith of the centurion who was not a Christian or a Jew by birth.
An interesting note that there are two places where Jesus is amazed at great faith. Here is one and the other is at the faith of a Canaanite woman who pleaded for her daughter. Jesus said He came to serve the children of Israel first, and the lady said, "But even the crumbs that fall from the table are worthy for the dogs." Jesus said, "Woman, you have great faith." We note these two examples because Jesus says this about those that did not grow up in the Jewish religion and to those who were not children of God by birth, but to those who came in as converts to the Christian faith.
Jesus reminds us to trust in the Lord. All around us the world says, "If you trust in the Lord, your hopes are going to be dashed. If you trust in the Lord, you are not going to get ahead in this world. Yet in trusting in yourself, you would have to be bold and confident in the advice of those around you. Where is trust in the Lord going to get you?" We know that by God’s grace alone trusting in the Lord gets us right into the gates of heaven. It gets us through all the trials and tribulations, all the temptations, all the sorrows and disappointments in this life. The Prophet Jeremiah wrote: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him"(JEREMIAH 17:7). I am sure each one of us here today has seen at different times in our life where our trust and confidence in the Lord has gotten us. It has provided us with blessings. It has provided us with comfort and strength and encouragement and joy and forgiveness.
So we come much like the centurion with a great faith. We realize we don’t deserve to be here at all. We don’t deserve God’s forgiveness, because day after day we walk around and sin against God with our wicked actions, our evil thoughts and our vicious words. Yet day after day and time and time again, the Lord forgives us. When we stop to think about that, we realize how we are humbled in the sight of God, how we don’t deserve anything at all, yet He gives us everything, more than we can even ask or imagine. The Prophet Micah says what our reaction to all the grace and goodness and love God shows us: "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God"(MICAH 6:8). Again, if you told your colleagues in this world you walk humbly with God, you love mercy and you like to act justly, they may say again, "You are not going to get very far in this life." But you will. You will get so far in this life that you will finally enjoy eternal life that is truly a sign of saving faith, a sign of great faith.
What is great faith? Great faith is just basically a saving faith. A great faith is a faith that is seen in the lives of others. The centurion had a great faith. He was willing to toss all caution to the wind. He didn’t care if he would no longer be a centurion. He didn’t care if the Roman government fired him, but he did care that his servant would be healed. He was not interested in himself, and he did know who would help his servant to be healed. That was the Savior, because his faith was Christ-centered. He realized that even though he was a man of great authority and power and respect and honor, he didn’t deserve anything at all. But he trusted in Christ in a very humble way. That is great faith, a great faith that each one of us has within us. That can shine on the outside of us also--a faith that others see when we live our lives not self-centered but Christ-centered and humbly trusting in God. No matter what the world thinks, no matter what they say around us, in the end when we face the Savior, whether it is our last day on our deathbed or whether it is Judgment Day, we can say with boldness and confidence like the Prophet Isaiah: "In that day they will say, ’Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation’"(ISAIAH 25:9). We don’t need to wait until that last day to see Him to rejoice, do we? We can start today until our final day on earth and realize, "This is the Lord, we trusted in Him. Let us be glad and rejoice in our salvation” because God has given us a great faith, a saving faith, not trusting in ourselves, but trusting in Christ humbly but boldly and confidently. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
