Faith Like a Centurion

Hello everyone, it is good to see you all here today. For those who do not know me, my name is Zac Kirylchuk and Pastor Liebschen gave me the opportunity to preach this Sunday.

I have grown up coming to this church for the occasional service and for the summer church camp for as long as I have been alive, truth be told.

Today, we are going to be breaking down the phrase that I am sure you have heard before , “Faith like a Centurion.”

To start, let us open up Matthew 8:5–13 to understand why this is important;

“When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man 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.” When Jesus heard this, he marvelled 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.” And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.”

The text ends with the servant being healed at the very moment the centurion showed his faith. And what exactly are centurions?

I would like to talk about the —>

Centurions and Their Earthly Power

To get more context, Centurions were officers in the Roman army in command of a unit of around 80-100 soldiers.

—> 100 loyal men that listened to every word the officer would utter. These centurions were not common people and Jesus was deeply moved because of his faith, in verse 10, Jesus says, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.”

So what exactly is Faith in itself? Let us get a better —>

2. Understanding of Faith

In Galatians 3:2 The apostle Paul asks a very important question about faith, “Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?”

Now this is a question for us Christians today, because legalism is a ideology that quietly takes over and soils a Christian’s life.

According to Dr. Google, Legalism is defined as, “excessive adherence to law or formula.” And the more theological definition right under it states that legalism is, “dependence on moral law rather than on personal religious faith.”

Now we need to know why having faith like this is so crucial in our Christian life. We need to have a better —>

3. Understanding of Our Faith

Now let us talk about faith and why specifically the faith of the centurion is important to us as Christians to understand today.

Remember that Jesus’ disciples were with Him when He said this. Showing them that Jews AND Gentiles are invited into the Kingdom of Heaven.

WE are Gentiles, believe it or not. We have been graciously grafted into God’s Kingdom and the faith of a centurion during Jesus’ day was uncommon for lack of a better word.

A commander of around 80-100 soldiers kneels before our Lord and Saviour, he has the faith that according to Jesus Himself has not see, let me read verse 10 again, “No one in Israel have I found such faith.”

No one? Not His disciples? Not even the faithful and just Pharisees? (That was a joke).

We must understand that our faith is the hope that God has and will continue to provide for us and I want to do a rapid fire section of verses of when Jesus commended the faith of people.

In Luke 18:40-43 Jesus encounters a blind man who cries out to Jesus, and the verse talks “And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” 42 And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” 43 And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.”

In Luke 8:48 it reads that there was a woman with an incurable disease and she was healed by simply touching Jesus’ garment. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

And finally, a very recognizable story in Luke 5:20 when four friends bring their paralyzed friend and lower him into where Jesus is speaking and after seeing the faith of the man’s friends, “he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”

These three verses talk about how the faith is what healed and forgave the blind man, the incurable woman, and the paralyzed man.

Remember that faith is not about a feeling, it is about belief. Because faith is belief in what we cannot see. These people who were healed saw Jesus and believed and it says in John 20:29, that “Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Ladies and gentlemen, the point of this is understanding the faith of the centurion and putting into practice our own faith in our daily life . Especially in today’s culture where true faith is hard to find.