Luke chapter 7, that's in the New Testament,
kind of toward the back half of your Bible, toward
the front of the New Testament, Luke chapter
7, verses 1 through 10. Perhaps some of you have
heard this story, and maybe some of you have
not heard this story. It's a story about a centurion,
that's a Roman soldier, and a slave that he had
that was very sick, and that's what we're going
to talk about. Luke chapter 7, verses 1 through
10. We'll read through the verses, then we will
pray. When he had concluded all his sayings and
the hearings of the people, he entered Capernaum.
Now the he here is Jesus. We're talking about
Jesus. Verse 2. A centurion's slave, who was
highly valued by him, was sick and about to die.
When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent
some Jewish elders to him requesting him to come
and save the life of his slave. When they reached
Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly saying,
He is worthy for you to grant this because he
loves our nation and has built us a synagogue.
Jesus went with them and when he was not far
from the house, the centurion sent friends to
tell him, Lord, don't trouble yourself. Since
I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.
That is why I didn't even consider myself worthy
to come to you. But say the word and my servant
will be cured. For I too am a man placed under
authority. Having soldiers under my command.
I say to this one, go. And he goes. And to another,
come. And he comes. And to my slave, do this.
And he doesn't. Jesus heard this and was amazed
at him. And turning to the crowd following him,
he said, I tell you, I have not found so great
a faith even in Israel. When those who had been
sent returned to the house, they found the slave
in good health. Let's pray. God, we come to you
today and we thank you for the freedom and the
privilege to come and together and to... fellowship,
dear Lord, and to praise you and to hear your
word. I pray, God, that your Holy Spirit would
be upon us today in a mighty way. God, you know
where we are in life. You know our struggles
and our stresses and our sins and our pains.
God, you know that we need you more than anything,
and I pray, God, that you help us to know that
today. God, I pray that you free us from the
distractions and the worries and the thoughts
of the world. I pray that you would, dear Lord,
help me to preach and teach in a way that's going
to bring glory and honor to you, that you take
away any pride or any nerves that I have, dear
Lord, and that your Holy Spirit would speak through
me to each one of us, God. I pray that your word
would do a work in our life today, that we would
seek you, that maybe there are some in this room
today, God, that do not know you. I pray today
that you would just work on them, dear Lord.
I pray that we would just experience your presence
and your love and your grace through these words.
And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
This is a short and simple story. Jesus did many
healings, and of course, word got out. really
quickly you got somebody that's driving out demons
and healing people and jesus is making his way
from town to town and and doing what the lord
had sent him to do and he's making his way into
capernaum here we see in this story And much
like many of the other places that Jesus stopped
and visited and healed people, people would come
to Jesus or they would sin for Jesus because
they would want healing in their life, or in
this case, in the life of someone that they love.
And the main character of this story is a...
Centurion. And it's important for us to realize
who this character is. Now, of course, Jesus
encountered many people. Jesus was a Jew himself,
and he tried to minister to many Jews and to
preach and teach to them. Sadly, there were many
of the Jews, the people who should have been
looking for Jesus, that those were the ones who
often rejected his words and rejected the things
that he did. But here we have a Gentile, a Roman,
a centurion. A man that would have had a little
power and a little wealth, but nonetheless, he
recognized who Jesus was, maybe in a more powerful
way than any of the rest. He had a slave that
was very sick, and he highly valued this slave.
And so when Jesus came into the area, this centurion
sent word. He sent word by some Jewish elders.
He sent word to Jesus, and they came to Jesus,
and they said, look, Jesus. We know this guy,
this Roman centurion, he's got a slave who's
very sick and he sent for you and he requests
that you would come and heal him. And what did
they say? They said, and he is worthy. And the
centurion is worthy. Jesus, you need to come
and do what he's asking because he's worthy of
you to respond to his request. And the reasons
that they gave that we saw in this passage were
one, he likes the Jews. He's somebody who likes
the Jews, and he helped build us a synagogue.
He helped build us a church. So Jesus, if there's
anybody who's worthy of you to respond and help
them in their life, it's this guy because he's
done the good things, the things that we think
are good. Now let's think about that for a second.
Do we ever fall into that trap? Do we ever fall
into that trap as though that we think we are
worthy of the love of God based on what we have
done, based on the good works that we do? And
we have to be careful not to fall into that trap
because we can get this mindset that if I do
these good things for God, then God is going
to do these good things for me. And so it's a
give and a take. I'll do my part and God will
do his part. If I've done good, then God's going
to do good to me because of what I've done, because
I'm worthy because of my acts. We have to be
careful not to fall into that kind of trap. This
is human nature. This is kind of the way we work.
We kind of understand this concept, right? If
you're married, maybe you've seen this scene
before. Maybe you're a man, you get home, and
your wife's got your favorite meal cooked. Boy,
you eat that meal. She's got a big old chocolate
cake here for you. You get through with your
chocolate cake. And she says, let me give you
a massage on your shoulder. Oh, you're tight.
You must be stressed. And she does all that.
And in the middle of that, she says, you know,
I've been thinking. There's this new purse that
I've been wanting. Would you mind if I bought
it? It costs a little. It costs kind of a lot.
Would you mind? So we understand this idea of,
okay, I've done some good, so therefore I'm worthy
to get some good back. And you men don't laugh
too hard. You do that too, right? You get your
wife some flowers. You go to her work. You take
her the flowers. You say, hey, come pick up your
car, babe. I'm going to wash your car. I'm going
to take you to your favorite restaurant tonight
where you like to eat. You get her out there.
You get her on a nice meal. You get her a good
dessert. And you say, you know, there's this
new gun I've been wanting to buy. You know, I
was thinking I need a new boat. And I'm worthy
of it because look at the good I've done, so
therefore I'm worthy to receive the good that
you're going to do to me. And that was the mindset
of these Jewish elders. They went to Jesus and
they said, Jesus, this dude is worthy because
look at the good things that he's done. But we
have to be careful not to fall into that trap
because we can fall into that trap and we can
begin to treat the grace of God like our bank
account. Does everybody in here know how a bank
account works? You have to put money into it
to get money out. And so as long as you've been
putting a lot of money in there, it's okay to
make some big purchases or even small purchases
every once in a while. But when you ain't got
nothing in there, you've got to put some more
in. And somehow we kind of try to juggle this
same idea with God. We say, well, God, I've been
doing all these good things, and I put a lot
of money in there, and I bought a sleeping bag,
and I helped make a shoebox. And so even though
I did this little sin, God, it's okay. It'll
take a little bit out of my account, but I've
got enough in there because I've been building
up. And sometimes we begin to treat our relationship
with God as though that we can earn His grace
and that God is happier with us when we've put
more in than we've taken out. And as long as
our balance... as in the positive, we're okay.
We can do a little bad, but it's okay because
we're worthy of God because we've done more for
Him than we've done bad. But that's not the way
it works. Sometimes we think the opposite. Sometimes
we think, man, I've done a lot bad lately. I've
really been blowing it these last couple months,
so I'm going to have to do good for the next
few months. I'm going to have to get my balance
back up in the green. It's in the red. But that's
not how God's grace works. That's not how it
works. It's not like we can do all the good we
can do so that God will wink at us when we do
a little sin and say, Ah, it's okay. I saw all
the work you did last year for the church. It's
okay. That's not how the grace of God works.
We are always in the negative. Our sin has put
us in the negative. And there are no amount of
good works that you and I can do to earn the
grace of God. We cannot do it. We are not worthy.
We may think ourselves worthy. People may think
that we're worthy. People may tell us that we're
worthy. Sometimes people do. Something good will
happen to you and they'll say, you deserve that.
You do so good in this and you do so good in
that. You're such a good person. You deserve
that. But we're not worthy of the grace of God.
Grace is something that we are not worthy of.
That's the definition of the word. It's something
that is given to you that you have not earned,
that you do not deserve. That there is nothing
that you have done to be made worthy of the grace
of God. And there's nothing that you can do to
earn it. And the centurion recognized this. There's
nothing we can do to earn the grace of God. And
when we have this mindset and this attitude that
I've done bad, I've got to do more. I've got
to work harder. I've got to do more work for
the Lord. When we have that mindset, we need
to stop right there and we need to say, God,
I'm not going to trust in my works to earn your
grace. I'm going to trust in the work of Jesus
Christ. That's where we get grace from. It's
through Jesus Christ who died on a cross that
we could be forgiven. Not by our works. We've
done nothing to earn it and deserve it. But Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, has given his life on
a cross so that you and I could be forgiven.
And that work that he did is a perfect work.
So we're not worthy of the love of Jesus Christ.
But because of the grace of God, Jesus Christ
loves us even though we are sinners. So these
Jewish elders, they come and they say, Jesus,
look, you need to come do this thing that this
guy wants to do because he's worthy of you to
do it because he's done some good things. So
therefore, you need to come do a good thing for
him. And so it says Jesus went on his way with
them. He began to go to the centurion's house.
And before they got to the centurion's house,
something weird happened. Now, he had sent for
this guy to come. The centurion had sent for
Jesus to come, and Jesus gets close, and now
the centurion sends some of his other servants
out, and he says, hold up right there. Here's
what the centurion says. He says, look, don't
come into my house. And you know what the centurion
says? He says, I am not worthy. That's exactly
the opposite of what the Jewish elders said.
They said, look, Jesus, come on, this guy's worthy.
But the centurion, he knew he wasn't worthy.
He said, Jesus, don't come to my house. I didn't
even come to see you because I'm not worthy of
you, Jesus. But I know who you are, Jesus. I
know of your authority. I am a man of authority,
and I know of your authority. And I know that
if you just speak, then what you say can be done.
So Jesus, don't come near me because I'm not
worthy, but please just speak the word. Now this
centurion guy, he was a pretty smart guy because
he recognized who Jesus was. He recognized the
authority of Jesus Christ. He recognized the
power of Jesus Christ. He knew that he was not
worthy of Jesus Christ because he recognized
who Jesus was. What a beautiful, beautiful scripture
for us to think about this morning. Do we recognize
the authority of Jesus Christ? Do we recognize
who Jesus is? He is the Son of God. Jesus says
that all authority in heaven and earth have been
given to Him. And this centurion, this Gentile,
Man, Israel, of all people, the Jewish people
should have known this truth. They should have
been the ones rejoicing in Jesus Christ. They
should have recognized the authority of Jesus
Christ. And so many of them missed it. But here's
this guy, this Gentile, this Roman centurion,
and he has recognized the authority and the power
of Jesus Christ. And he's also recognized where
he stands in relation to Jesus Christ. You see,
our worth is not determined by what the world's
standard is. Our worth, whether we're worthy
of Jesus Christ, is determined by what God's
standard is. And what God's standard calls us
to are things that we fail to live up to. And
by God's standards, we are unworthy. When we
realize that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the
world, that Jesus Christ is the ultimate judge,
and we recognize that he holds all authority,
then we have to recognize that we hold no authority
and that we are unworthy of his love, and this
Gentile man recognized that. Now, we can tell
pretty quickly how much we respect somebody's
authority by how much we live in obedience to
what they say. It's true of just regular everyday
laws. How much do you respect the authority of
the law? Okay, speed limit says 55. Do you go
55? Well, if you go 55, you probably respect
that authority. Maybe you go 60. Okay, you respect
it a little bit, but not completely. You start
going 150 everywhere, well, you don't have much
respect for authority. You can tell how much
you respect somebody's authority by how obedient
you are to their commands. Now let's look at
our life in Jesus Christ and all the commands
and instructions that Jesus calls us to. Do we
live in obedience to that? Maybe you do. Praise
the Lord. Maybe you don't. Maybe you start looking
at the Scripture and you see all the things that
God calls us to, all the commands of Jesus, and
you say, wait a minute, Jesus says love our enemies
and pray for those who persecute us. I don't
do that. Jesus says don't do this. Well, I do
that. Pretty soon, if we start going down that
list, we might not like our answers. We might
find that we don't respect the authority of Jesus
Christ at all. It's easy to tell if we respect
the authority of Jesus Christ because we will
listen to and follow his commands and live in
obedience to him. This centurion got it. This
centurion recognized the greatness of Jesus.
He knew just how unworthy he was to be in the
presence of Jesus. And he said, Jesus, I know
who you are and I know that you're unworthy,
but I know your authority, so I just call on
you. And Jesus says, I have not seen such a faith
in all of Israel. The man had faith in Jesus
Christ. And that faith was born out of humility
and submission. that he humbled himself before
Jesus. He didn't run out and say, Jesus, I love
the Jewish people, and I helped build a synagogue,
so thank you for coming. Come on in. I'm worthy
of what you're about to do. He didn't say that.
Instead, when Jesus Christ came, the Son of God,
he humbled himself before him, and he submitted
himself to him. And Jesus said, this man has
faith. This is the beginning of faith. There
has to be some humility, I believe, before we
can come to faith. Because without humility,
we're doomed to think that we can somehow save
ourselves. That somehow we have the power and
we have some authority in our life to change
things in our world and in our life. But we don't.
We're just hopeless and helpless sinners. And
what God wants us to realize more than anything
is that all authority has been given to Jesus
Christ. And He is our Savior and He is our hope.
And faith comes when we, like the centurion,
will humble ourselves and say, Lord Jesus. I
come to you broken and tattered and torn, a sinful
man, a sinful woman, and I'm not worthy of you
today, Lord Jesus, but I humbly come before you.
And that's exactly what the centurion did. He
humbled himself before Jesus. And Jesus says,
I have not seen so great a faith in all of Israel.
And all the people who should have known about
the Messiah, who should have been waiting for
the Messiah, who should have known by the words
that Jesus said and John the Baptist said and
the scriptures that they would have had to read,
of all the people who should have known the Messiah
and been looking for the Messiah and when Jesus
came onto the scene should have said, this is
the Messiah. And some did. Some Jews did. But
there were many Jews that saw Jesus and failed
to recognize him and did not put their faith
in him. And it says in the scripture that Jesus
was amazed. He was amazed. Hear this Gentile
man. He recognized the authority of Jesus and
submitted to him while so many in Israel did
not. Jesus was amazed at this man's response.
You know, only two times in scriptures is Jesus
amazed. Two times. And both times that Jesus
is amazed is really the same thing. Now, if you
go back and look in Luke chapter 4 and in Mark
chapter 6, you'll see this story. Go back and
read those chapters this week. Mark 6, Luke 4.
Jesus goes back to Nazareth. That's where he's
from. and he begins to teach these people and
to preach to these people, and it says of the
crowds that they are amazed at what Jesus is
saying, that they are amazed at the things that
he's speaking and the things that he's doing,
that they are blown away. But then you know what
it says right after that? It says, we're amazed
at who Jesus is. He's so great. He's so awesome.
But he's just Carpenter's son. He's nothing special.
And you know what it says that they said about
him? It says that the crowds in Nazareth, the
Jewish people there, were offended by him. Not
because of the words that he said, but because
of his background. They failed to listen to what
he said. They were amazed by it one minute, but
then they said, well, there's nothing special
about this guy. He's just a local guy. He's just
a carpenter's son. There's nothing special about
him. And it said they were offended by him, so
much so that they drove him out of town to hurl
him off the side of a cliff. They were going
to kill him. One minute they were amazed at his
words, but they just could not bear to trust
him and listen to what he had to say, and instead
they decided they wanted to kill him. And you
know what Jesus said in that passage? In Mark
chapter 6, verse 6, Jesus was amazed at their
unbelief. He's the only two instances in all
of Scripture where Jesus is amazed. One is here
in the story of the centurion where he was amazed
at his faith. And the other was for his own people,
the Jewish people, the people of Israel. And
Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith. The
very people who should have known Jesus and had
faith in him didn't. And here this Gentile centurion,
who probably didn't know the scriptures very
well, yet had heard of Jesus, recognized the
authority and power of Jesus, and had faith in
him. And in both instances, Jesus was amazed.
The question that we have to answer today, it's
which of those crowds are we going to be? Which
of those characters? Are we going to be the...
Are we going to be the ones in Nazareth that
hear the word of Jesus and are intrigued by it
and even amazed by it, but yet refuse to listen
to him and follow him? Or are we going to be
like the centurion? Are we going to be one who
hears of who Jesus is, who sees the power of
Jesus at work? Are we going to humbly submit
ourselves before him for the forgiveness of our
sins? Perhaps Jesus is still amazed today. I
don't know. Maybe he's amazed today when some
come to him. Maybe he's even more amazed when
there are others who have heard the gospel, who
have heard of his love, who have experienced
it in some small way, and yet they still decide
to reject him. Now, I don't know where you are
in life. As humans, We fall into that trap of
trying to make ourselves worthy of God's love,
of maybe trying to convince ourselves that we
have done enough. But I'm going to tell you today,
it's time to stop. It's time to stop trying.
You have not done enough. God is not going to
love you more if you... Put twice as much in
the offering plate. Buy twice as many sleeping
bags. He's not going to love you more for those
outward things. What God wants more than anything
is for your heart. If you want to experience
the love and the grace of God, you'll experience
that when you stop relying on your works and
you start relying on the works of Jesus Christ
crucified and resurrected. There you will find
the grace of God. if you would humble yourself
today before Jesus Christ, if you would repent
of your sins, if you would realize that today
is the day, the time is now, that Jesus Christ
wants to be your Lord and Savior. He didn't die
on the cross because you were worthy. He died
on the cross because you were unworthy. And He
knew that was the only way that your sins could
be forgiven. So who will you be today? Will you
be those in the crowd who hear the words of Jesus
and are offended? Or will you be those in the
crowd that hear the words of Jesus and humble
yourself before him? Let's pray. God, we thank
you for your good words. I pray, dear Lord, that
you be with us this morning. Maybe there are
some here this morning and they have tried to
do it their way and maybe their whole life they
have been trying to earn your favor and thinking
if they just do good enough, it'll all work out.
But God, that's just not true. I pray today,
God, that they would quit striving in an effort
that only is going to leave them worn out and
burdened, dear Lord. I pray today that they would
quit trying to make their wrongs right by their
good deeds. And that they would know this morning
that it is through Jesus Christ crucified that
their sins have been forgiven. God, if they would
just ask in this moment, I pray that they would.
If there are some in this room that do not know
Jesus, young or old, dear Lord, I pray that in
this moment, right now, God, that they would
ask you to forgive them. That they would repent.
That they would stop trying to live by their
way, dear Lord, and start living in obedience
to Jesus Christ. That they would let Jesus be
the authority in their lives. That they would
stop striving, dear Lord, to control their own
destiny because we cannot, God. But through Jesus
Christ, you've promised us peace. You've promised
us an eternity, God. You've promised us forgiveness
and grace. There is no greater... Joy, dear Lord,
than to experience your grace and the joy of
forgiveness. So I pray today, God, that we would
recognize that we are not worthy, but Jesus is.
That we would humble ourselves at the foot of
the cross, God, and ask Jesus to be our Lord
and Savior. God, maybe there are some in here
today, and they're yours, and maybe there's something
that you just brought out to them in this scripture
this morning. Maybe there's something in their
life that's just nagging at them, some sin or
whatever it may be, God. I pray that they would
just humble themselves before you today. I pray,
God, that we would follow the example of this
centurion. That we would recognize, God, that
before Jesus, we are nothing but sinners. But
nonetheless, that he loves us enough that he
gave his life for us. So I pray that we would
live in that truth, rejoice in that truth today.
God, I pray that if there are any who have made
that decision to follow Jesus Christ today and
have humbled themselves before him, I pray that
as we sang, dear Lord, that they would step out
from that pew and that they would walk down front
with me, dear Lord, that they would let it be
known that they have decided to follow Jesus.
And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.