Have Such Faith

Jesus’ Mission to Israel and the Gentile Centurion

Well, good morning, church. You can please turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 7. We're going to be in verses 1 through 17, and when you have that, please do stand for the reading of God's Word. Beloved, hear ye the word of the Lord this morning.

Luke chapter 7, starting in verse 1. After he had finished all his sayings and the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him.

When a centurion heard about Jesus, he sent him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him, earnestly saying, he is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation.

He is the one who built us, our synagogue. And Jesus went with him. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.

Therefore, I did not presume to come to you, but say the word and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set 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 these things, he marveled at him. And turning to the crowds that followed him, said, I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.

And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well. Soon afterward, he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother.

Humility, Presumption, and Faith in Jesus’ Word

And she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said to her, do not weep. Then he came up and touched the buyer, and the bearer stood still.

He said, young man, I say to you, arise. The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fierce seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, a great prophet has risen among us, and God has visited his people.

And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and the surrounding country. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Precious Savior and dear friend, we do come before you this morning asking that you grant in us a peace to receive that which you have given before us, that is in your Word, and that we would learn from today's message and from the worship and from the exaltation of your name and from the sweet fellowship that we enjoy amongst ourselves to have such faith, even such as this, that we would trust in Jesus for all of our needs.

Father, help us and may you lead us in the way that we should go, and we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Beloved, here in the story of chapter seven of Luke, Jesus concludes his great sermon of the mount.

He is now in the area of Capernaum, and he is continuing his ministry amongst the tribes of Israel. Jesus continues to be on mission. Luke's gospel really is the missional gospel. Unlike some of the other gospels, Luke very much stresses the missionary work of Christ and his disciples.

He goes to great lengths to describe this missionary effort of our missionary God. Jesus is the greatest missionary to have ever lived. He is the one who was sent from the Father in the fullness of time, born of the Virgin Mary, to live the life that you could not live, holy, perfect, blameless.

He does all things in accordance to the will of his Father. He does not disobey not even one direct command of his Father, and he does all that is required, not only for salvation, but also for obedience.

He obeys all things and is perfect, even unto death on a cross. This Jesus, therefore, God highly exalts later on in the gospel of Luke, demonstrating that God has approved of his servant, that this servant spoken of by the prophet Isaiah is indeed the promised servant, the great missionary, the great servant, the great arm of the Lord that comes to save.

Here we find two examples in which Jesus, in his earthly capacity, his earthly ministry, heals and then also raises the dead. I want you to think of all these examples that we find in Scripture, in the gospels, about Jesus doing the miraculous.

This is a microcosm of what Christ will do at a grand scale at the end of the age. You see, as Christians, we believe that Christ came and he shall also come again. There is an eschatological expectation among the people of God that there is a future in which Christ shall be here, he shall come, he shall reign, and we shall see the benefits of that reign completely.

All that we see in the gospels are leading up to this anticipation of what things will be like under this new heavens and this new earth. We start this example here in Luke chapter 7 by examining the first three verses here.

Again, after he had finished all his sayings and the hearing of the people, this is the great sermon of the mount, he entered Capernaum. Now, a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death and who was highly valued by him.

Now, Jesus speaks to the crowds and now we see him laser focus upon a couple of individuals. After speaking to the crowds, now he's going to focus. After focusing on the many, he now focuses on the few.

He goes into this particular town, he begins to hear of this particular person, the centurion. A centurion is a Roman soldier. Now, you might not make this connection so easily and so clearly, but this in a sense is almost scandalous.

Jesus, after preaching to the Jews and preaching to the tribes of Israel, now the gospel is turning its attention to a story in which Jesus points his attention to a Gentile, a centurion. Now, a centurion who is highly regarded by the Jews.

And this centurion also has a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by this particular centurion. A centurion, again, was like a platoon leader. He's one who has command over a platoon of troops.

And again, these are Gentile, likely Roman individuals. In verse 3, it says, when the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him the elders of the Jews asking him to come and heal his servant. So you have, again, the centurion who has the command of an army, of a platoon of soldiers, who also has a servant who is sick, who he desires to see healed.

He sends the elders of the Jews to find this Jesus who he's hearing so much about. It's kind of like the world that we live in today. You know, the world that we live in today here in America has heard maybe a little bit about Jesus.

And it's usually only in times of trouble, though, that the world starts looking towards Jesus. Isn't it interesting, folks, when maybe in our own personal lives or in the lives of those whom we know, when there's difficulty, when there's challenges, that's when we really start looking for God.

You'll see pagans in this world who will never appeal, they'll never talk about God until something goes wrong. And maybe you'll see a Facebook post of maybe a person asking for prayer or someone who is seeking answers to the questions that they may have.

It's usually in the midst of hardship that we are reminded of our total need of God. But that total need does not arise just in the midst of hardship. It is a constant. But it's usually when things go bad that we are reminded of such things.

And friends, we need to be reminded often of our total and desperate need of Jesus. And when life isn't going the way that we want, when life isn't all perfect and all roses and beautiful sceneries, it's a reminder that life is indeed fragile.

The centurion had power, had wealth, had authority, and yet one of his servants was almost at the point of death, causing him great grief, great desire to see his servant healed. And in verse 4, we see what happens next.

When they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, he's worthy to have you do this for him. I want you, if you're following the notes, I want you to write this. When the centurion had a servant who was sick, he heard and asked for Jesus.

Again, it's when life gets hard that we often seek after spiritual truths and answers. And friends, the truth is this, life can and is hard. In this fallen world, we experience sicknesses. We experience diseases.

We experience emotional distress and challenges of all sorts of kinds. There's a great quote here by Corrie ten Boom, and I want to read this to you. It says, if you look at the world, you'll be distressed.

If you look within, you'll be depressed. If you look at God, you'll be at rest. Again, highlighting the fact that in this world that is broken, that is falling apart, if we look at it, we'll tend to become distressed.

And isn't it true? The more news that we consume, the more distressed we usually are. It's when we're looking at all the variables and all the things happening in society that we begin to become more distressed and a level of anxiety begins to rise within us.

And then when we look within, we often find that even within ourselves, we have too many inadequacies to solve the problems that are in society. And we say, well, how can I make a difference? How can I do something of value?

And we start becoming even depressed as we look at the world and as we look at ourselves. But when we look at Christ, when we look at God, that's where we find perfect rest. As we learned in the catechism this morning, we have a God who is sovereign, who is in control, who governs all things according to his mighty decree and his word.

Therefore, we have something of an anchor in Jehovah, in the true God, because in him, though the world is tossing to and fro and life can be difficult and there can be various things of different kinds that are leading us to be distressed or depressed, we can look upon Christ who sits on the throne of history, who knows all things from beginning to end.

Not only does he know them, but so also he governs it. He decrees it all for his glory and ultimately for our good. It's for our good. Think of that statement in the context of the servant. It isn't good generally to be sick.

It isn't good generally to be at the point of death. Yet, as the scripture says, and the scriptures cannot be broken, all things work together for what? All things work together for what? Good. Good. I don't always know how that works though.

Let's be honest, brothers and sisters. I can preach it. I can say it. I can read it in the scripture, but when life is hard, when life is difficult, when sickness is at your door, when death is at your door, it doesn't always feel good.

It doesn't always seem good to me. Yet, who is the one that holds all things in the palm of his hands? It's the sovereign Lord Jesus. And if he says it's good, it's good. And if he says, trust in me and know that eventually at the final outcome, at the resurrection of the dead, you'll see, you'll know, you'll experience, you'll taste, and you'll see that it is indeed good and it was meant for your good and it was always for your good.

Because a life without challenges, a life without difficulty, a life of just ease is not one that is good because it doesn't produce the right effect. But rather when times are difficult, when sickness is at our door, when death is at our door, we are reminded of the ultimate source of good and it's in God.

It's in him that we find true rest. We will do well then, brothers and sisters, to look to Christ for our healing and our comfort as did the centurion. When death was at his door, when sickness was at his door with his servant, he goes and looks for Jesus, the only one who has the true answers, the only one who can make the sick well, the only one who can raise the dead.

That's who the centurion seeks and looks for. And so much so that in verse 4 again it says, and when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly saying, he is worthy to have you do this for him for he loves our nation and he is the one who built us our synagogue.

Again, you know what's interesting in the Gospels is that sometimes as we read the Gospels, for me personally, I find things that raises my eyebrows. As a good Reformed Baptist, when I hear someone say he is worthy, I'm like, hmm, I don't know about that.

I don't know about that. Good Reformed Baptist would say, no, no, no, no, no. Well, Paul hadn't written Romans 3 yet, but that comes to mind, right? No one is good, no one is worthy, no one is righteous.

I think of Revelation chapter 5, there's only one who is worthy and that's the Lamb. I think of all these things in Scripture and yet when these things pop up, I try to contextualize it in the time in which it was said, in the time in which these revelations were received.

He says, he is worthy to have you do this for him for he loves our nation. What's the point here? Was the man worthy in all ways? Of course not. But at the heart of what the Scripture is saying and what is being reported to Jesus about this centurion, about this man, is that he loves our nation.

He's a Gentile, a man who's not an Israelite, a man who's an outsider, who the Old Testament would call a dog and yet he loves the nation of Israel. He loves the Jewish people. He loves the God of Israel.

And because of this, this man can be counted as one who is worthy to be visited by the Lord of Israel. And therefore it says, it continues to say here in the text of Scripture that he's the one who loves our nation.

He's the one who built us our synagogue. And so again, here's a man who has personally invested his riches, his influence, his authority in helping the people of God at the time, helping those who were of God's elect nation.

In verse 6 it says, and when Jesus went with them, he was not far from the house, the centurion sent from saying to him, Lord, do not trouble yourself for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.

The Centurion’s Humility and the Sufficiency of Christ’s Word

Ah, there it is. See, in verse 4, those who the centurion had sent was saying to Jesus, here's a man who is worthy, and yet the man acknowledges what he truly is before the sovereign Lord. He is one who is not worthy to have the Lord of history to come under His roof.

Now, that's the heart of the centurion. That's the heart that should be prevalent amongst God's people, a heart of humility, knowing that Jesus can deliver me from my problems and my sicknesses. He can do so, but I do not hold Christ hostage to do only that which He can do.

It reminds me of the story of the three Israelites in the furnace, in Daniel, of which it was said of the redemption that would come. He says, God can deliver us. He will deliver us, but even if He doesn't, He's still worthy.

He's still good. He's still Yahweh. He's still enthroned in glory and in majesty, and yet also here the centurion has a like heart. Lord, don't trouble yourself. Don't waste your time. I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof.

Friends, like the centurion, if you're following along in the notes, we must approach Jesus humbly, humbly, for no one is worthy to receive of Him. No one is ultimately, objectively, worthy to receive even one ounce of His goodness, because the truth is, is that we're all sinners.

We've all broken the law and the commandments. We're all fallen short. Even in my mother's womb, I was conceived in sin. So wretched, so wicked am I, apart from the grace and the loving kindness of God, that I, under God's just rule, under His just law, and worthy not only of death, separation from the body, but I'm also deserving of eternal death, eternal separation from the goodness, kindness, and mercy of Almighty God.

That would be just. Yet, in His goodness, in His forbearance, in His kindness, in the grace in which He has lavished on us in the Beloved, in Jesus Christ, we are visited and clothed by pure grace, so that we could receive of this great and mighty Christ.

But, one again, must approach this Jesus humbly, knowing, Lord, I'm not worthy. I know I'm a sinner. I know that I don't deserve anything from Thy good hand. And also, like the centurion says, Lord, don't trouble Yourself.

This was true then, when Jesus was preaching to the multitudes, when He was preaching the kingdom of God and healing the sick. He says, I get it, Jesus. You're busy. How much more now that He is now enthroned King of kings, Lord of lords, at the right hand of the Father, interceding for His people.

Jesus is pretty busy. He's busy. He's got a lot of things on His plate. He's governing the cosmos, all things. Yet, He's not too busy for you. Yet, it is not too hard for Him to consider even you. And sometimes in life, when we look at the business of our life and we consider God, His glory, His majesty, and the things that we need, and sometimes we don't even ask Him.

Because we think, yeah, He's already bothered enough. Friends, Jesus is indeed your friend, should you be found in Him today. And as a good friend would want to know, He'd like to know your troubles. He'd like to know your heart.

He'd like to know your every need. Not as if He doesn't already know it, because again, He's sovereign. He's enthroned in glory and majesty. All things bend to Him. Yet, He wants to hear from you, because He cares for you.

He loves you. He desires to be in relationship with you. Just as this centurion humbly approaches the feet of Jesus and says, Lord, don't even bother yourself. I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof.

Yet, he gladly receives and accepts this Jesus who comes to visit. It says in verse 7, Therefore, I did not presume to come to you, but say the word and let my servant be healed. For I, too, am a man set 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. You receive the heart of the centurion again. He doesn't presume to receive anything from the Savior, but rather, he rests on God's every word.

I want you to write this in the notes that are following along. Our faith should not presume. There's a danger in presumption. There are some groups of Christians today who maybe overly presume some things.

If you know the name it and claim it, folks, maybe some in the charismatic movement, who presume to know and to receive and say, well, God desires and wants to heal you, wants to bless you, wants to do all these wonderful things.

And in the ultimate sense, as we discussed earlier, that is true. God ultimately is for you, not against you. Ultimately, all things do end up for good and not for bad and not evil. Ultimately, at the end, God has his way in all ways and all things.

But it doesn't mean that every single circumstance of life, God must bend to what we want. Be careful of a presumptuous faith. Our faith should not presume, but it should rest on God's every word for the result.

Notice again what the centurion says in verse 7, therefore I did not presume to come to you. He was not presumptuous. As what would almost be indicated with the earlier statement in verse 4 where those whom he had sent originally said, hey, he's worthy.

There's a presumption there. This man is a good man. He's worthy. He's good enough for you to do this for him. That presumption, the centurion says, no, no, no, no, no. That's not what I want communicated here at all.

I don't presume to be a good man. I know I am not worthy. He goes on to say, but say the word. But say the word. You see, the centurion was not presumptuous. Rather, he understood the power to do what he had desired was in Christ's word.

Just in his word. Just as today, brothers and sisters, we have within our possession that which is enough for us today. And it's his word. His word is enough. His word is sufficient. So when we're having a bad day, we're having a bad time, when we get unexpected negative news, what should we run to?

His word. His word is able to sustain us. His word is able to instruct us. His word is able to empower us. And we should run as the centurion said, just say the word, Lord. Just say the word. And run to his word here in Holy Scripture.

Because the centurion knew this, that just at the word of Christ, his servant could be healed. This demonstrates incredible faith, incredible trust. For this man also understood the power of authority.

He himself goes on to say, I'm a man set under authority with soldiers under me. And I say to him, go, and he goes. He understands the chain of command. He understands what authority and what weight means in this world.

And in saying this statement, he's also acknowledging that in Christ stems ultimate authority. That Christ can command diseases to go, and they will go. He can command the dead to rise, and they will rise.

Jesus has such authority. So much so that at the command of Christ, at just his word, life can be fundamentally different for those who trust in him. Notice what verse 9 says, when Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him and turned into the crowd that followed him, said, I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.

Man, wouldn't you want to hear that from Jesus? You see, the centurion has the right heart though. You see, instead of the centurion being presumptuous, he's humble. Instead of the centurion looking for the glory, he acknowledges that the authority and the glory was vested in Christ.

See, if I heard Jesus say this about me, I'd be, well, thank you, Lord. I'd feel a certain kind of way. I'd feel pretty excited. But the heart of humility would say otherwise. The heart of a servant, a heart that knows the true authority of Christ would be one of being before the God of heaven and worship him.

And do what the scriptures use the term proskuneo in the Greek, which means to bend below, to have your face towards the ground. Proskuneo, and worship this God. That's what the word worship in the Greek has the connotation of, nose to the ground, touching the dirt.

That should be the response of all true worshipers, face to the ground, acknowledging that there is a God above you who has authority and who speaks, even at His very word, can do the impossible. I tell you, Jesus says about this man, not even in Israel have I found such faith.

I want you to write that in the notes. Jesus commends the centurion saying, not even all Israel have I found such faith. You know what Jesus isn't looking for? Jesus isn't looking for a superficial faith.

He's looking for humble submission and acknowledgement of His good sovereignty. You see, when our beliefs are based upon His word and not on our presumption, then we can be found well. But don't allow yourselves to fall prey to the presumption of what you think may or might be possible.

Rather, go by the word. Don't presume anything. Rather, humbly submit to the mighty hand of God. There He can exalt you. And then in verse 10, it says, when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.

Well. It was at the very command and cry of Christ that the servant could be made well. Just a beautiful example of the power of faith. Jesus didn't have to physically, personally visit these individuals.

Just at His word, it was enough. Beloved, I want you to know this morning, His word, His very word is enough for us. His very word is enough for us. Again, Christ isn't looking for superficial faith. He's looking for humble submission and acknowledgement of His good sovereignty.

Compassion, Resurrection Hope, and the Widow of Nain

Now we see this other part of this story of today's scripture reading. Starting in verse 11, we have now a different set of circumstances, but yet still similar. We have now that Christ goes into this other town.

He's visiting. He sees that there's a widow who's just lost her son. Pretty terrible. Pretty terrible. Think of the circumstances here. The woman, widowed, lost her husband. Her only son, who would then presumably be the only provider left, is now gone.

She's got nothing left. She's lost everything, her husband, her son, and yet when the Lord saw her, in verse 13, He had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep. Do not weep. Have you ever weeped, cried?

You know what the last thing you want to hear is someone say, don't cry. Don't cry. I always find that annoying. If you're mourning, if you're in pain, and someone says, don't cry. Don't weep. Well, what do you mean?

How can you tell me not to weep? Do you feel what I feel? Have you encountered what I've encountered? Have you lost what I've lost? How could you tell me not to weep? How inconsiderate is that? Yet, here you have Christ saying to the woman, seeing her loss, having compassion on her.

He says, do not weep. You know why Jesus can say that? It's because He knows something you don't. Jesus not only knows something that you don't, He can do something that you can't do. And Jesus alone knows what He's about to do.

He says in verse 14, it says that He came up and touched the buyer and the young man, I say to you, arise. You see why Jesus then could say to the woman, do not weep, is because He knew what He was about to do and only that which He could do, and that is to raise the dead.

He's about to do the impossible, brothers and sisters. There's times in our lives when we too find ourselves in despair. We too find ourselves destitute. We too find ourselves in a moment of mourning and weeping and know that there's that soft voice of the Savior who says to you also, don't weep.

Don't fall into despair. Don't fall into hopelessness because I'm about to do something. I'm going to do something great and marvelous. Again, there's this eschatological expectation that we have as Christians that our life, that our time, our short time here on this earth is not the final end.

It is not the conclusive end of all things. Rather, we believe and hold fast to this truth that there's life beyond the grave, that there's a hope that surpasses even death itself. So that even when we encounter great loss, great despair, we know that we do not mourn like the world does as if those without hope, but rather we have a hope and a solid basis for that hope and it's the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

That's our gospel hope. And because of that hope, because of that truth, because of the reality of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, we don't have to weep and mourn like the world. You know what I look forward to, brothers and sisters?

Again, talking a little bit eschatologically, one of my favorite verses of scripture is Revelation 21, verse 4, where it says, and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And there shall be no more mourning, nor crying, nor pain, nor death anymore.

The former things shall be passed away. Behold, he is making all things new again. If only we knew what Jesus is about to do, we would not weep and mourn like the world does. Instead, there is a day coming, brothers and sisters, when all those who are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of Man and be raised from the dead.

Maybe we've lost loved ones. Maybe there are those who we desperately want to be reunited with. Friends, there's hope. There's life beyond the grave when there's a day coming in which all humans who have ever lived shall hear the voice of the Son of Man and be raised from the dead.

And just as we see here when Jesus says to the young man, arise, in verse 15 it says, and the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. There's hope. There's hope. Do you have such faith to accept the truth about the future?

Do you have such faith to hold on to the promises of God, even in the midst of great despair? Do you have such faith, even such as the centurion who knew just by the very Word of Christ the sick could be healed?

Do you have such faith this morning? Here's the good news, brothers and sisters, and I want you to write this in the notes. The Lord Jesus is compassionate. He is compassionate. He is moved by our loss and suffering.

There's a God who not only is aware of your suffering, not only is He aware of your loss, because in this life sometimes it feels like God is distant. Sometimes it feels like maybe there's a God, but He's so far away.

He's so up there. He's not even concerned with my day-to-day activities. He's not concerned with my day-to-day loss. But friends, there's a God who sees, knows, and cares, and that makes all the difference.

Doesn't it make a difference, for instance, in just in our personal lives when you know there's pastors in your life that care for you? Doesn't it make a difference in your life when you know that your boss not only is worried about your performance, but he's worried about you as a person?

Doesn't that make a difference in the way that you work when you know that your employer, your boss, actually cares for you? It makes a difference, doesn't it? And so also it makes a difference in life when we know that not only is there a God, but this God intimately knows, is aware, and cares about all my problems.