The Faith of the Centurion

Luke 7:1-10

Whats up yall again we are in the boundless faith series. Last week we talked about these guys helping their paralyzed friend but lifting him on top of a house, and tearing apart of roof, and lowering him in. The we week before that we spoke about the man that had Leprosy, and how gosh you know how embarassing for the man to be in there but also his willingness to Go to Jesus, In all these stories, there is this going to Jesus displayed by people and also displayed by their friends. Something that really hit me as I was preparing this is, I had to ask myself the question do I have faith in God for my friendships where they don’t believe, and do I recognize God as the one that heals, the one that saves, You know we hear these prayer requests and things that but do we leave the prayer request right here, I know I do sometimes, My love for my friends should be for them to have like I have ya know. I want my friends to share the experience that I have. I want people to share the experience I have, you go to a game and gosh by the time Im there I know and im talking to everybody that I just met, and where all cheering for the terrible hogs right. The weird part about it is that we don’t know where we come from, we don’t know each others past and upbringing. We are just there, together.

Lets take it outside of the team aspect of a game, but the people you have class with, just your classmates in general. You share experiences with them daily, something funny happens, a fight breaks out, someone gets busted for drugs, But think about what it would look like if you shared an experience for christ together? The biggest thing that we do together is fields of faith but think about what you are doing on your own with the people around you that is Christ centered?

I thank the Lord that my friends invited me to their youth group, and their bible studies in high school because I absolutely was going through the motions of Christianity, because in someways it got a hold of me because I haven’t forgotten it.

Today we are going to look at a man that should be in opposition to Jesus, but isn’t, and because of his faith that he displayed, Jesus not only heals his friend but we see that Jesus in this human way is just amazed at this mans faith.

The Faith of a Roman Officer

New Living Translation Chapter 8

The Faith of a Roman Officer

5 When Jesus returned to Capernaum, a Roman officer came and pleaded with him, 6 “Lord, my young servant lies in bed, paralyzed and in terrible pain.”

7 Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.”

8 But the officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. 9 I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go,’ and they go, or ‘Come,’ and they come. And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it.”

10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel! 11 And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world—from east and west—and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven. 12 But many Israelites—those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

13 Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, “Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened.” And the young servant was healed that same hour.

Lets take a look at the first 2 verses.

5 When Jesus returned to Capernaum, a Roman officer came and pleaded with him, 6 “Lord, my young servant lies in bed, paralyzed and in terrible pain.”

Capernaum represents the home of Jesus, you ever come home from a long Trip, ya know, at least for me my reaction is thank God I am back in my town, and hallelujah I can finally relax, as long as i don’t see anybody I know, as long as I see anyone that I don’t like,

But here jesus gets encountered by a Roman Officer, in many ways today we get approach by any authority figure, we can have this tendency to pushback. But lets just take it even further here, which we will have to use our imagination because we live in a free country. But lets say a different country had control of the U.S. and then changed everything the way you lived the way you got to worship and everything. Thats who this roman officer was, the roman Govornment, and Jewish people and roman people did not like each other, right.

On a real level if were honest with each other, we may not have opposition within someone taking over our country, but we have opposition within our country. Someones always trying to tell us how to feel about african americans, about whites, and about hispanics, about everyone.

So we can kinda understand a little bit of the anomosity. But what did the roman soldier do. It says that he came and pleaded with him, and he said Lord, my young servant lies in bed, paralyzed and in terrible pain.”

He asks Jesus in the way of calling him Lord, and he asks him something on behalf of his servant, like almost like a coworker.

We need to go to God for people

Colossians 1:9 paul speaks to the people in Colossae and he says this “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,”

Jesus says, “I will come heal him” and we think ok Jesus about to put on his uniform and Go to work he’s about to go in and heal this man, and normally we would be like LETS GOO right there Jesus steps out in the crowd like he comes out of a tunnel for a basketball game. Standing not dead with holes in his hands, Jesus Christ!!!!

But the centurion says

“Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. 9 I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go,’ and they go, or ‘Come,’ and they come. And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it.”

The centurian saw the man get off the bus, and he said thats all I need you to do, You ever see a team get off the bus looking like theyre about to dominate.

But here he comes to the Lord humbly, hey bro I am not worthy for you to come into my home, and I know you have alot going on because I have alot going on too, he says look I tell people what to do because im in charge of 6000 men, so just say it and it will be done.

We need to go to God humbly!

1 Peter 5:6 “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,”

We need to go to Him and ask simply!

1 John 3:22 “and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.”

And then jesus says this

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel! 11 And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world—from east and west—and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven. 12 But many Israelites—those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

There is a good chance that the people were following him were other jewish people. and he says look this is what faith looks like, and this is what faith is, this is what believing is, its asking in with the belief that it will happen.

We all have the person that comes through for us. Right whether its that person that always has a pencil in class for me it was going to my grandmas house, and her always having a cookie in her cookie jar, I believed she was going to have some in there without a doubt. Like any doubt. Thats how we show go to God, without doubt,

Jesus then tells his people like hey um i know yall from isreal, I know where kin to each other I know we do the same things but if youre not believing in me even you will not see the kingdom, pretty wild. In these stories Jesus makes that inferance of coming to him, believing in him and the other side of not believing in him is bad.

I don’t wanna miss out on heaven, I don’t want you to miss out on heaven, and we shouldn’t want our friends to miss out on it either

We shouldn’t want our friends to miss out!

Jesus says this

13 Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, “Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened.” And the young servant was healed that same hour.

We please God by having faith in Jesus,

Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

So where do we move forward?

Have faith without bounds, have faith for your friends, that one day God will get a hold of them. Today I called one of my from high school and told him how much I appreciated him for his faith, and then the work that I was doing.

He said to me, gosh I really didn’t do any special and I said I know but it was the example you set.

Some questions that I want you to discuss about today in our groups are,

What can we learn from the Centurions Faith?

Have you ever had the experienced of “being surprised” that someone you thought or judged to be far from God actually possessed strong faith?

How do you show faith in Jesus personally?

How would you go about having faith for your friendships