Untitled Sermon (15)
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13 When Samuel came to Saul, Saul said to him, “May you be blessed by Yahweh! I have kept the word of Yahweh.” 14 But Samuel said, “Then what is this bleating of the sheep that I hear in my ears and the lowing of the cattle that I am hearing?” 15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; the troops spared the best of the sheep and the cattle in order to sacrifice them to Yahweh your God. But the rest we have utterly destroyed.” 16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop and let me tell you what Yahweh said to me last night.” So he said to him, “Speak.” 17 Samuel said, “Even though you are small in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? Yahweh has anointed you as king over Israel. 18 When Yahweh sent you on your way, he said to you: ‘Go! You must utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and you must fight against them until you have destroyed them.’ 19 Why did you not listen to the voice of Yahweh and fall with shouting on the plunder? You have done evil in the sight of Yahweh!” 20 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have listened to the voice of Yahweh, and I have gone on the way that Yahweh sent me! I brought Agag the king of Amalek, and the Amalekites I have utterly destroyed. 21 The troops took from the plunder, sheep and cattle, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God at Gilgal.” 22 Then Samuel said, “Is there as much delight for Yahweh in burnt offerings and sacrifices as there is in obeying Yahweh? Look! To obey is better than sacrifice; to give heed than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination; arrogance is like iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of Yahweh, he has rejected you from being king!”
Pray
Jesus’ Mission: Where are we in the story?
Let’s place ourselves in the story. Jesus has just finished delivering the sermon on the mount for those following Him. In this sermon He unfolded and deepened the meaning and understanding of the Law for those who were listening. And then the next two things he does is
A: Heal a Jew and then
B: Heal a Gentile.
In fact this is towards the beginning of a section of Matthew where Jesus is just rolling the miracles off the press like hotcakes.
Why is He doing this?
Is He just performing miracles to gain followers? Because if so, it’s a pretty good strategy.
I don’t care where you are in history, if you start walking around making blind people see, curing leprosy, feeding thousands of people at a time and raising the dead, people will follow you.
And there were so many people following Jesus at this stage.
Jesus however, is not just healing people left and right to increase His following.
Jesus is doing at least two things simultaneously through these miracles.
Jesus is fulfilling the priestly and missional calling of Israel
Jesus is authoritatively giving signs that the kingdom has already come, and He is the king.
So what’s up with the priestly missional people stuff?
As God responds to sin we see Him unfold His plan throughout scripture for restored communion. We see God’s heart in this matter pop up again and again, whether it’s through the sign of the rainbow, the choosing of Abraham to be the father of a nation of priests, the exodus out of Egypt, the forming of Israel, the giving of the law, or the guiding staff of prophecy promising a better prophet, priest, and king.
And when we read Israel’s history we see that they needed this better man to save them because they never fulfilled the law and existed as a light to the nations. In fact the prophets make it clear that Israel actually ended up helping the nations increase their sin.
And now Jesus is on the scene. The promised Messiah, is here, and He’s BEING Israel. He’s living out the covenantal life that they were supposed to live.
We don’t have time to get into it now, Ryan pointed it out some last week but the parallels between Jesus life, and the history of Israel can give you chills.
The second thing Jesus is doing is giving authoritative signs that the kingdom has come.
These signs are the confirmation that the blessings Jesus promised in the beatitudes is here NOW, and through these healings of men and women, we have proof that the King is here.
“His first and highest aim is not the cure of as many people as possible in order to manifest the kingdom of God on earth, but His real task is preaching.” - Herman Ridderbos “The Coming of the Kingdom”
The miracles are proof that what Jesus is telling them about Himself and the kingdom of heaven is true.
There’s a third thing we can notice here:
Jesus loves people. Whether it’s Jews or Gentiles, Jesus is ready to heal and forgive.
5 When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 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. 9 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.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 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.
This is a text that will require humility, the willingness to press into the emotions of the original hearers of this interaction, and the willingness to press forward into application.
The Nature of Faith:
Talk about centurion
Centurion’s were the military backbone of Rome’s influence over the known world at the time.
Centurions played a unique role as men who had proven themselves in battle, but also had the wits to and leadership skills to manage a Roman century.
This Centurion would have been the leader of roughly 80 Roman soldiers in the area.
It’s safe to assume that this Centurion had a commanding presence, he likely had the body of a warrior and was powerful in combat and in the way he ordered his men around.
We learn from Luke’s Gospel that this man loved the Jewish people and had even built them a synagogue.
It’s beautiful to think about the potential storyline for this man. Probably born somewhere else in the Roman empire, probably raised in a pagan environment, and then upon being stationed in Capernaum, he encounters Jews and learns to love their God.
5 Now when he entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him, appealing to him 6 and saying, “Lord, my slave is lying paralyzed in my house, terribly tormented!” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
Notice Jesus’ immediate answer.
Compare to Canaanite woman in Matthew 15
Both of Jesus’ responses are in a way obstacles that Jesus erects in order to showcase the faith that he delights in.
Jesus desire in both cases are for the people to be healed.
8 And the centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come in under my roof. But only say the word and my slave will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority who has soldiers under me, and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another one, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”
Centurion’s stunning proclamation of faith and understanding of authority.
Just picture this guy, surrounded by servants and soldiers at his command, bearing the symbol and authority of the Emperor with him, and he gets word that Jesus is actually coming to see him.
This centurion understood something that even the disciples didn’t quite seem to grasp yet. The disciples were anticipating Jesus to be crowned king and advance His rule afterwards,
But this Centurion, having heard of the miracles and proclamations that Jesus had already made, understood that Jesus WAS the one with authority.
So he sends Jesus a message.
“Listen I know how this works,”
The centurions authority was ultimately an extension of the emperor’s authority, and he understood that Jesus was under God’s authority, and for Him to speak was for God to speak, and therefore no magic or tricks, or ritual or even laying on of hands was necessary because it was God’s word.
A Warning:
And here is where Jesus makes one of the most devastating and challenging statements ever recorded.
It would have been nice if he had just healed the dude and moved on.
In fact, going back to the idea of building big followings, usually it’s not a good plan to offend your biggest base of followers by talking about hell.
But Jesus is not interested in gathering a group of happy go lucky miracle followers.
He wants to gather the people of God. And that means disciplining them.
English Standard Version Chapter 8
Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
You can just hear the disciples “This guys gotta be crazy”
Here Jesus tells us that it is on the basis of faith that people are saved.
Salvation is not linked to rank, status, gender, nationality, race, or lineage.
And what we learn from reading the gospels is that there were many in Israel who assumed that simply because they were descendants of Abraham, they would be saved.
East and West language would have been especially painful for Jesus’ Jewish listeners too here because it was in these terms that they placed their future hope of redemption for Israel.
7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Behold, I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west; 8 and I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.’
There were many in Israel at this time who had taken this prophecy to mean that the Messiah would arrive, gather in the scattered Jews from across the Roman empire, and then destroy Rome in violent power, crushing them and any other opposing nation under their feet.
Additionally the imagery of a feast is also linked to the Jews hope for the future.
It was a true hope, because we know that the culmination of history will be a great wedding supper, but the way they imagined the seating arrangement was a little off.
So Jesus says, I am going to take these same Romans you want me to crush, and I am going to invite them to my wedding feast on the basis of their faith and their faith alone.
You can start to piece together why they wanted to kill Jesus. Because he doesn’t stop there.
Not only are these Gentiles going to recline with your patriarchs, there are some who are the descendants of the patriarchs who will be in hell.
We have to be delicate with this passage and not make untrue assumptions about Jesus’ love for the Jewish people.
Let’s turn over a few pages to Matthew 23:37
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.
What we don’t have here is a Gentiles vs Jews situation.
This is not God saying, well, I’m done with these Israelites, time to bless the Gentiles.
Jesus LONGS for the Jewish people to be found in Him.
And we see Paul pick up this same emphasis and longing through his ministry.
What Jesus is teaching the Jewish people is that just like their father Abraham was justified based on His faith, so must they if they want to be included in the kingdom. And since it is faith and not circumcision that justifies, therefore Gentiles can be included in the household of faith.
Application:
How do you apply this text?
We might be tempted to think, well luckily we don’t have those Pharisees around anymore. We’re Christians!
Check to see if it’s you.
Jesus just finished wrapping up his big sermon with this zinger:
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
The new Pharisee-ism of our age is sitting in the pews your whole life, checking the boxes of the American dream and thinking because God has extended you the common grace of a relatively peaceful and easy life that you’re going to get to join Him in the kingdom of heaven.
Family, don’t read this passage without asking “Is it me?”
In the words of the esteemed theologian Ice Cube, “Check yourself before you wreck yourself.”
The defining message of Jesus’ gospel proclamation both to the first century Jew and to the 21st century Gentile, is that His kingdom HAS come and it is only based on faith in this God’s kingship over creation and His victory over death in the event of His resurrection that ANY man can be saved!
This passage is so rough man!
When I was first given this text I was excited because it’s one of the first glimpses of what God is going to do in the church age as the gospel is taken to the Gentiles and Jerusalem and Antioch mount a full scale onslaught of missionary activity to both Jews and Gentiles all around the world.
And as I dug into the text it plagued me. This is tough stuff. Jesus talks about the reality of final and total separation from God.
But what I like about this passage is these difficult words from Jesus are wedged right in the middle of a beautiful tapestry of love that He is weaving.
It’s a tapestry that includes people of every tribe, nation, and tongue.
13 And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed that very moment.
You know what always strikes me about all of Jesus’ miracles?
Did you know that that servant died later?
So did the centurion.
And every apostle.
And every Christian in the household of faith since then.
But what Jesus is doing here through the proclamation of the gospel, proved through these miracles of healings is going to ultimately culminate in Him crushing the head of a serpent named Satan and banishing death to death.
This is the faith we profess, that Christ crucified and resurrected is our only hope in life and death and that our bodies sown in the ground in death will be raised to life with Him one day.
And the life we now live in these diseased bodies, we live by faith in the son of God.
“The secret of the presence of the kingdom of heaven lies in Jesus’ victory over Satan, in his unlimited miraculous power, his unrestricted authority to preach the gospel, in his pronouncements of blessedness and the bestowal of salvation upon his people. There can be no doubt that we are confronted here with the messianic, Christological character of the kingdom of heaven and that the entire fulfillment which Jesus proclaims as a present reality is based on the fact that he himself, Jesus, is the Christ.” - Herman Ridderbos “The Coming of the Kingdom”
The kingdom of God has come and God has planted justice like seeds in the earth and it is sprouting up before the nations like a giant tree that spells with it’s branches JESUS IS KING.
11 For as the earth produces its sprout, and as a garden makes its plants sprout, so the Lord Yahweh will make righteousness sprout, and praise before all the nations.
PRAY
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and after he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 Likewise also the cup, after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.