Luke 7:7 Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
Luke 7:8 For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
Luke 7:9 When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
I. Wow! What Love, 2, 3
II. Wow! What Praise, 4, 5
III. Wow! What Humility, 6, 7
IV. Wow! What Faith, 7-9
We need more respect for authority.
Joke:
I went to the store the other day, I was only in there for about 5 minutes and when I came out there was a motorcycle cop writing a parking ticket. So I went up to him and said, ‘Come on buddy, how about giving a guy a break?’
He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. So I called him a pencil necked nazi. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having bald tires!!
So I called him stupid. He finished the second ticket and put it on the car with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket!!
This went on for about 20 minutes, the more I abused him, the more tickets he wrote.
I didn’t care. My car was parked around the corner...
Now, I am not talking about the kind of "faith" that one has when he closes his eyes and prays that when he goes home he will find a new Lexus parked in his driveway. That is ridiculously absurd.
Faith is believing what God said in His Word, trusting in His promises, and accepting His revealed will. It is eagerly searching the Word knowing that what it says is true and that it is all about us and what matters not to us and what our future will be. It is a willingness to bet your life that the Word of God is true and reliable.
Luke 7:1 Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum.
Capernaum was His adopted hometown where He performed many of His miracles.
Twice in the Gospel record we are told that Jesus marveled. Here in Capernaum, He marveled at the faith of a Gentile; and in Nazareth, He marveled at the unbelief of the Jews (Mark 6:6).
I. Wow! What Love! (2, 3)
Luke 7:2 And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.
Luke 7:3 And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant.
He held this Jewish slave boy to be dear and not only had him cared for in his own home but went forth to seek means for his cure.
The centurion is a gentile. During that time and in that corner of the world, there abounds racial tension. The Jews looked down at the gentiles. They even call them "dogs." They shun them. They ridicule them. They don’t want to associate with them.
On the other hand, there is plenty of anti-Semitic sentiment among the gentiles even in that era. So, there is a seemingly unbridgeable racial divide. The Jews hate the gentiles and the gentiles hate the Jews. The feeling is mutual.
The centurion is an officer of the Roman military. A centurion is a commander of a hundred soldiers. These soldiers maintain law and order in that locality. You can say that the centurion is the chief of police. But he represents the occupiers, the Romans. He is the embodiment of the hated enemy, the oppressor, the undesirable foreign element. A radical Jew will not hesitate to plunge a knife at the back of a Roman soldier if he finds one patrolling alone in the dark alley.
Aristotle said, "A slave is a living tool, and a tool is an inanimate slave."
Gaius in his Institutes reveals that a master possessed the power of life and death over a slave. If a master so desired he could go out and murder any or all of his slaves... no questions asked.
Varro explained that the difference between a slave, a beast and a cart was that a slave could talk.
In his book, Living Faithfully, J. Allen Blair tells of a man who was struggling to get to Grand Central Station in New York City. The wind blew fiercely, and the rain beat down on him as he lugged his two heavy suitcases toward the terminal. Occasionally he would pause to rest and regain his strength before trudging on against the elements.
At one point he was almost ready to collapse, when a man suddenly appeared by his side, took the suitcases, and said in a strangely familiar voice, "We’re going the same way. You look as if you could use some help." When they had reached the shelter of the station, the weary traveler, the renowned educator Booker T. Washington, asked the man, "Please, sir, what is your name?" The man replied, "The name, my friend, is Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt."
It was a tragic mistake. On July 3, 1988, the navy cruiser USS VINCENNES shot down an Iranian airliner with 290 aboard. All were lost. The ship’s captain mistakenly thought they were under attack by an F-14 Iranian fighter.
Public opinion polls showed that most Americans opposed paying compensation to the victims’ families. The cruel treatment of American hostages in Iran was still fresh in many minds. But President Reagan approved compensation. Asked by reporters if such payment would send the wrong signal, he replied, "I don’t ever find compassion a bad precedent."
To many people, the principle of revenge is so much simpler to practice. Yet compassion is Christ’s way—a deep caring for the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the whole person. It reveals the heart of God for sinful people—for you and for me.
As Christian, we must look at the whole person through the eyes of Jesus. Being moved by compassion always sends the right signal. —D.J.D.
A parallel to the Centurion’s love for his slave is God’s love for us!
WOW God loves me!
Jesus Loves us!
Robert Dick Wilson, (Woodrow’s brother and President of Princeton) mastered 45 ancient languages, studied archaeological digs. At the end of his life, he was asked: "Dr. Wilson, what is the greatest and most profound truth that you have ever discovered" Dr. Wilson responded after a few moments, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."
When a godly Christian became seriously ill, several friends gathered around his bedside to ask God to restore him. The last one to pray spoke of the faithful service of this man, and concluded his petition by saying, "Lord, You know how he loves You." After a moment of silence, the sick believer said to him, "I know you meant well, but please don’t plead for my recovery on that basis. When Lazarus was ill, Mary and Martha sent for Jesus, but their request was not based on his affection for Christ. They said, ‘Lord, he whom You love is sick.’ It’s not my weak and faltering allegiance to Him that calls forth His attention, but His perfect love for me that is my constant strength and hope."
The same thought was forcefully impressed on hymn writer Philip Bliss one day after he finished singing, "Oh, How I Love Jesus." "These words are true," he said. "Yet I feel guilty for having sung so much about my poor love for Christ and so little about His endless love for me." As a result, he wrote a song that is well known today. It reads,
I am so glad that our Father in heaven
Tells of His love in the Book He has given;
Wonderful things in the Bible I see—
This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me."
Yes, our greatest comfort in life or in death is not that we love Him, but that "He loved us" (1 John 4:10). - H.G.B.
—Our Daily Bread, August 5
II. Wow! What Praise! (4, 5)
Luke 7:4 And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this:
Luke 7:5 For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.
Let others praise you! I don’t think the centurions initials were T.O. The brilliant physician and writer Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., and his brother John represent two radically different views on the subject of flattery. Dr. Holmes loved to collect compliments, and when he was older he indulged his pastime by saying to someone who had just praised his work, "I am a trifle deaf, you know. Do you mind repeating that a little louder?"
John, however, was unassuming and content to be in his older brother’s shadow. He once said that the only compliment he ever received came when he was six. The maid was brushing his hair when she observed to his mother that little John wasn’t all that cross-eyed!
Note: How quickly they praised the centurion, "instantly," they didn’t have to think about it.
It would have sufficed for the centurion to merely accept the religion of the Jews.
They would have been immensely delighted just to see him attend worship once in a blue moon.
But he did better than that. He put his money where his mouth is. He single-handedly built the synagogue.
I don’t know if he used his one hundred soldiers to do the job. He could have.
I don’t know if he personally funded it or if he solicited from others.
What struck me was the fact that he saw the need and he acted on it. To me that is faith at work.
III. Wow! What Humility, (6, 7)
Luke 7:6 Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof:
Luke 7:7 Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
Not just self-deprecation,
G.I. at rifle tournament, doing poorly, "I feel like shooting myself"
Seargent, "Better take two bullets"
Some people feel like they are on a first name basis with God. No Reverence!
A similar awareness of our unworthiness in the light of God’s holiness is what all of us need if we are to receive God’s grace.
Isaiah 6:3,5 5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
If, the centurion who built a synagogue could not plead his merits, how can we?
There is nothing worthy in us
Spurgeon, the great prince of preachers, was once staying at the inn in one of the valleys of northern Italy where the floor was dreadfully dirty. "I had it in my mind to advise the lady to scrub it," said Spurgeon, "but when I perceived it was made of mud, I reflected that the more she scrubbed the worse it would be"" Just so God knew that there could be no improvement of the corrupt nature of man except through faith in His Son.
None of us are worthy
In preparation for a meeting in a large city, famed evangelist Billy Sunday wrote a letter to the mayor in which he asked for the name of individuals he knew who had a spiritual problem and needed help and prayer.
How surprised the evangelist was when he received from the mayor a city directory.
On a visit to the Beethoven museum in Bonn, a young American student became fascinated by the piano on which Beethoven had composed some of his greatest works. She asked the museum guard if she could play a few bars on it; she accompanied the request with a lavish tip, and the guard agreed. The girl went to the piano and tinkled out the opening of the Moonlight Sonata. As she was leaving she said to the guard, "I suppose all the great pianist who come here want to play on that piano."
The guard shook his head. "Padarewski [the famed Polish pianist] was here a few years ago and he said he wasn’t worthy to touch it."
—Source unknown
You would think that someone who built a synagogue was worthy?
One characteristic that distinguishes Christianity from all other religions of the world is the teaching of salvation by grace, through faith, apart from human works or worth. For this reason, I was especially interested in the following headline in the Grand Rapids Press: "Conversion to Hindu Faith Is Tortuous." The article stated, "A West German businessman has completed his conversion to the Hindu faith by piercing himself through the cheeks with a 1/4-inch thick, 4- foot-long steel rod, and pulling a chariot for 2 miles by ropes attached to his back and chest by steel hooks. Others walk through 20- foot-long pits of fire, don shoes with soles made of nails, or hang in the air spread-eagle from hooks embedded in their backs."
What a contrast to Christianity. Aren’t you glad that conversion to belief in Jesus Christ is not accomplished by this kind of self-inflicted torture?
IV. WOW! What Faith! 7-9
Luke 7:7 Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
Luke 7:8 For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
Luke 7:9 When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
Twice in the Gospel record we are told that Jesus marveled. Here in Capernaum, He marveled at the faith of a Gentile; and in Nazareth, He marveled at the unbelief of the Jews (Mark 6:6).
The faith is not great because of the amount but because of where it was placed, In the "Lord" Jesus Christ (7:6)!!!
As a man of authority the centurion knew that one did not have to be personally present to execute a command. The one in authority only needed to issue the commands to have something done. The centurion recognized authority in the person of Christ and confessed that it was not necessary for Christ to come to his home. It was only necessary for Him to issue the command. This demonstrated a remarkable faith in the person and authority of Christ.
His expertise in one area helped him recognize truth.
Didn’t need a Relic or Ritual, just a "Word."
That’s Great Faith
That’s Saving Faith.
A two inch long discolored eyetooth is reverenced by 400 million Buddhists as the most sacred object on earth. The tooth is supposed to have been reclaimed from Buddha’s funeral pyre in 543 B.C. and was brought to Ceylon 800 years later.
Today the tooth sets upon a golden lotus in the glorious temple of the tooth in Kandy, Ceylon. It is surrounded by rubies and tons of flowers.
Each year a hundred thousand faithful Buddhists come from many countries to gaze at the sacred tooth. They bring gifts of gold, silver and jewels to place within the temple.
Rom. 10:13 1 John 5:13
Rom 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Rom 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
Rom 10:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
Rom 10:16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
It is recorded in history that some years ago a man was condemned to be put to death. When he came to lay his head on the block, the prince who had charge of the execution asked him if there were any one petition he could grant him. All that the condemned man asked for was a glass of water. They went and got him a tumbler of water, but his hand trembled so that he could not get it to his mouth.
The prince said to him, "Your life is safe until you drink that water."
He took that prince at his word and dashed the water to the ground. They could not gather it up, and so he saved his life.
Our faith ought be much greater. We have an entire Bible to read and study, as well as nearly 2,000 years of church history to encourage us, and yet we are guilty of "no faith" or "little faith." Out prayer ought to be, "Lord, increase our faith" (Luke 17:5)!
