The Divine Credentials of Jesus (Part 3)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is

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Mike Abendroth, and we finally got this Facebook thing figured out.

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Okay, here we go. If you want to write me, it's infoatnocompromiseradio .com. By the way, we have a website, and the website is nocompromiseradio .com.

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If you just type in in the search engine, you'll find whatever you'd like there. We've got 2 ,500 shows or so that if you'd like to pull up, that would be great.

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I also help pastors and Bible teachers. I critique their sermons and give them some hints, like I would do at the doctoral programs and other programs that I've been able to teach at.

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That's called sermoncritique .com. The tricky part about that is how do you give your pastor a $99 sermoncritique .com

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gift? That's the question. Well, you know what?

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I don't understand half these things. I wrote a book called Sexual Fidelity, and then I don't know what to call it, right?

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And I just put a black cover on there, and then it's like, well, then if people buy it, that means they have a problem, so now people don't buy it.

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So, how do you get people not to buy your book? Call it Sexual Fidelity. I mean, I don't know what, so. By the way, if you order

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Sexual Fidelity in October, November, December, you get things that go bump in the church for free, so you don't have to do anything.

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Just pay for the book, Sexual Fidelity. The other one comes for free. Buy one, get one free.

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Anyway, my name's Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. This is pretty much just a hobby of mine, kind of a thing that I try to do.

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Here's how NOCO kind of had its origins. I know that I'm not the smartest guy, but I like to talk.

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I have a lot to say. And I think early on in the ministry here at Bethlehem Bible Church, Bethlehem Baptist Church at the time,

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I imported a lot of stuff into the sermons that weren't really related to the sermon.

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Here's what I mean by that. You know, something weird came up, and it's the prayer of Chavez, and it was purpose -driven church, then purpose -driven life, and then it was, what are some of the other things?

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Experiencing God, and then all kinds of kooky Bible teachers, and Ann Voskamp, and Beth Moore.

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This is back in the day. I mean, they're even worse than they were now, in my opinion. And I wanted to kind of critique those people, because it was bugging me.

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I mean, you know, this is, we're not to play games with scripture, as Calvin said.

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So I think I talked about those things maybe in sermons too much. And then

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I realized, you know what, there's got to be a different vehicle. So No Compromise Radio was spawned.

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We're in Matthew chapter eight, and Matthew chapter eight, if you haven't watched the last two shows on Facebook Live in the

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NOCO group, or if you haven't been listening to NO Compromise Radio, Matthew eight is one of those chapters that I often go to, to be encouraged, and to be excited about who

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Jesus is, his person, and his work, his character, his power, his compassion, his credentials, and that in fact, he is the right one to worship.

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You will need an advocate one day, a savior. You will need an intermediary.

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You will need a mediator, advocate, arbitrator, umpire, to use the language of Job.

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And you're going to need someone who can be both a representative for you, and who is

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God as well. So how do you get a God man? Well, it's only the Lord Jesus, and Jesus comes on the scene, and he's got the right credentials in terms of chapter one.

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Everybody knows it, including Herod, so they try to kill him, Satan tries to go after him.

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And then Jesus gives this great sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, and he's not quoting rabbis, he's not quoting scripture per se, to back up his authority.

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He has authority because he is the son of God, the begotten one, and he therefore says things like, you know, you have heard it said, but I say to you, everyone who does these words of mine.

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I mean, it says in verse 24, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

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Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

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And therefore, how or why, what person would ever listen to someone who talks like that?

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I mean, some kind of megalomaniac, some type of lunatic, some type of deranged person.

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I regularly am on the streets and what happens more often in California and people just like shout and talk and say weird things on the street corners, just like talking to themselves and their minds are fried probably on drugs or something.

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But Jesus has the credentials to back this up, right? His message is authenticated and his person is authenticated because he can do only things that the son of God can do, right?

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So that that's what's happening. And so you have in Matthew eight, why it's a go -to passage for me. You have six snapshots of the power and compassion and greatness of Jesus that give him credentials so that I'm reminded

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I am worshiping the right one, right? Every once in a while, I might be thinking to myself, you know what?

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There's a lot of religions, there's a lot of holy men, and there's a lot of critique of Christianity.

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Is the person I'm worshiping that I'm trusting my eternal destiny on, for, with, by, and under, is he the right one?

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Is my savior really my savior? Can he do the right things?

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And of course, ultimately he was raised from the dead and a proof positive vindication of all of what he said and did, but Matthew chapter eight, we're in here now talking about the leper.

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So we left off last time. He comes down from the mountain, verse one, great crowds followed him and behold, I like that language.

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Matthew says that a lot. Behold, to kind of get your attention here, listen up, watch, pay attention. A leper came to him and knelt before him saying,

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Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. We talked last time about the sovereign power of God, but also the purpose of God and the willingness of God.

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He called him Lord, not just because he's saying, Hey sir, Hey mister, Hey buddy, uh, Lords do what they want.

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So those go together. Lord, if you're willing. Lepers aren't healed, been a thousand years or so since a leper has been healed.

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I mean, two lepers in the history of the world have been healed is unless there's been some lepers healed that weren't recorded, right?

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But it's not a regular thing and therefore we have the passage that goes on and it says in verse three,

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Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying, I will be clean.

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And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. I love to study

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S. Louis Johnson stuff and, uh, I still have squash and stuff that I, I'm supposed to be publishing, but I haven't done publishing for quite a while.

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Louis asked this question, when was the last time anybody even touched this guy?

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What's human touch feel like? What must it be to have somebody touch you when you are untouchable, right?

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It's maybe other lepers touched him, but you know, when some guy's coming down the street and you see him and everybody yells unclean, unclean, unclean, unclean, and runs the other way and you grab your kids.

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Would any rabbi touch this guy? Any common rabbi, any thinking rabbi, what do you dare to do that?

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Now, if you haven't caught this, here's one of my main points in No Compromise Radio. The incarnation is important.

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The incarnation is important. Just how significant is the incarnation?

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How wonderful, how important, how defining is the eternal son of God that takes human flesh, human nature, and has that actually now too, of course, even in heaven.

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How important is the incarnation? Here's an answer, Exhibit 1. This is how important the incarnation is in terms of identification, in terms of representation, in terms of compassion, the significance of the incarnation.

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And you've got the Holy One of God, Jesus, and you've got the filth of the leper.

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And here we have Jesus touching the leper. It says he had compassion.

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What's the text say? I'm trying to look it over here. I've got the wrong thing in front of me. The reason why

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I'm saying this is because I've got Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and they're dealing with it, and it doesn't say compassion here in Matthew, but it says in Mark, he was moved.

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Oh, duh. My notes say only Mark moved with compassion. What was

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Jesus' response? He was moved with compassion. This is a word that Mark uses for the inward parts.

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It's an emotional word. It's from the bowels, from the innermost person, most often used for God's compassion, right?

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And you see sheep, they have no shepherd. You feel compassion. It's that,

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I have a pain in my heart or my nerves are damaged. No, it's the first one.

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And Jesus, he has compassion, but then he shows compassion by touching the leper.

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Real love to this social outcast. And it says immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

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I could go off on a little tirade here, a little screed about how people try to heal folks at these healing rallies.

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Remember when God heals, maybe with one exception, it's instantaneous.

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It is complete. It is organic. If CNN was there filming, they would all go, oh, yes, that's true.

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Must be by a demon, but it is true. Christ healings, supernatural, spectacular, excuse me, undeniable.

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That's Mark's point. That's Matthew's point. That's the point of what Jesus did.

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And Jesus said to him, see that you say nothing to anyone. He gives a warning here, but go show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a proof to them, right?

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There's all these ideas of what the Messiah was, who he was, some kind of zealot overtaking

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Rome, et cetera, et cetera. Israel hadn't come to know and to expect what the

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Messiah is really going to be. And therefore, Jesus is going to say, now you just go show, be quiet.

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Let's obey the law. But I've got a lot of other things to teach. And we're going to talk about suffering, then glory and other things.

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So he sternly, Mark 1 says, warned him and sent him away.

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And you just go talk to the priests. Side note, and I think maybe it is still

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S. Lewis Johnson. You're the priest. Some guy comes to you. I used to be a leper.

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I'm healed. Can you confirm? I'm here to do whatever the Bible says for offerings and sacrifices and follow up.

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And S. Lewis Johnson says, it never happened before. So you had read about it in your

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Bible, but you, the priest are like, I think I better look that one up again. I have no idea what to do with you because this never happens.

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It's kind of an interesting anecdote. So I regularly read the gospel of Matthew because I need to get focused off myself and the just shall live by faith.

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And that is shorthand for faith in the Lord Jesus. It is good to be reminded of who Jesus is.

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In addition, may I make this comment on No Compromise Radio? It is my show. Sometimes we think about gospel centered, gospel oriented, redemptive historical.

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A lot of these things. I'm with you right there. But we could maybe turn it into only

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Christ's work on the cross and Christ's confirming resurrection.

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That is to say, as important as substitutionary atonement is and Christ's death for our sins is,

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I want to make sure I focus in my life, not only on his death and resurrection, but also his life, right?

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He lived for me. He died for me. He's buried for me, raised for me. Those are all important.

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And therefore, when I think about the gospel centered life, I say gospel's good news.

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What's good news? Who Jesus is and what he did, both. And this will remind me of who he is, right?

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What he did on earth leading up to, of course, the pinnacle, the apex, his death on the cross and his assuaging the wrath of God for all those who would believe.

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Okay, I get that part. I'm not trying to minimize it. That would be like compromise radio, no content radio.

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But this helps me because I've got a lot of other chapters besides the end where Jesus is crucified in Matthew 27, if memory serves.

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Okay? Additionally, there's another credential here. How do I know

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Jesus is the right one to worship? How do you know? Maybe today you're watching or listening and you're like, well,

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I don't know who this guy is, but I believe in Buddha or Krishna or Muhammad or somebody,

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Joseph Smith, Brigham Young. I don't know who's your favorite person to worship.

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Why would I believe in Jesus versus anyone else? Well, who else does this?

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Let me show you another one here with the centurion and his servant. If you're a Christian, this is a good reminder that you're trusting in the right one.

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When he had entered Capernaum, we were just going to go there in a few months. Come on.

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A centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.

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Now, one of the things about centurions and Jesus, I think maybe centurions are mentioned five, six, seven times in the

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New Testament, and they all speak highly or think highly of Jesus. That's pretty amazing.

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A century, a hundred. These guys ran a hundred men in the military, in the

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Roman army. I guess it's back to the right kind of thing.

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I've not heard from that listener for quite some time, who she'd always say to me, it's not right to drink on the air, and you should be putting your mute button on or something.

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So that's in her honor. She's a nice lady, by the way, we joke about it.

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I found this on the internet. This is primarily because there is no equivalent in the modern military to the centurion.

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Centurion is not a rank, but rather a class within the military structure. Historian Michael Grant writes, these formidable men combine the functions and prestige of a company commander and sergeant major or top sergeant, the lowest grade of centurion received nearly 17 times as much as an ordinary soldier.

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So whatever they were, this guy's kind of a big shot in the army.

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And actually the last thing I'll read to you from the internet about centurions, a Roman soldier did not become a centurion overnight.

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It took years. Grant describes special cohort within legions made up of veterans of 16 years or more.

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So it took quite a while to work your way to the top. And so this wasn't some young gun or anything else.

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This was a seasoned vet, as we might call them. And you can study

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Luke, if you'd like. Luke basically says the centurion didn't go to Jesus.

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Uh, the centurion sent people to speak on his behalf.

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And so Matthew just kind of combines that some, of course, there's no difference between him going and him sending his emissaries, uh, to go talk.

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Matthew was just giving a briefer account and saying that the centurion comes as it were through the elders and his friends.

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And Jesus said to him, he says to the centurion through the messengers, verse seven,

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I will come and heal him very emphatic there. Um, you ever thought about this?

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The Gentile soldier of Rome asked the Jewish teacher to come and heal.

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Centurion replied, Lord, I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed.

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Verse nine, 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 into my servant, do this and he does it now while I might be getting tired.

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This is amazing to me for I too am a man under authority. Okay. Stop the presses.

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Okay. I, the centurion am a man under authority. Okay. Okay.

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Hang in there with me. I too am a man under authority. What's the difference?

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The centurion recognizes that Jesus is a man under authority. Who's authority?

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That's fascinating. You look at the gospel of John, the gospel of Jesus Christ, according to John, to correct myself and you'll see he was sent.

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He sent me. He sent me the Jesus. Sorry. Jesus saying the father sent me and you'll realize the son of God, right?

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If you think of eternity past, we're not talking about any kind of subordination or anything like that.

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We're talking about co -equal. We're talking about co -essence. We're talking about equality.

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We're not talking about any weird subordination kind of eternal sonship kind of craziness. Yet the son goes, the father sends, he is under the authority of the father to do what the father has given what to do, what the father has given him to do.

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Go rescue my people, go rescue the bride, go rescue the elect, live for them, die for them, be raised for them.

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And you go obey me. And even when you think about the garden and in Gethsemane, right?

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It's your will, father. I'm here to do what you want me to do, even though from the human perspective, it's going to be atrocious.

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It's going to be egregious. It's going to be the worst ever to be underneath your wrath. Forget naked humiliation and crucifixion.

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Well, that will be painful, but the assuaging of the wrath of the almighty wrath of the wrath of God, I'm under your authority to do that.

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And it's interesting that the centurion recognizes that. He understands that I'm under authority.

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I have to report to Rome, but I know you're under authority as well. Isn't that cool? I think that's cool.

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This is why we turn into no compromise radio. We tune in, we turn in. What's the message say about this?

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I wonder, you know what? Once in a while, I think, okay, it's radio, ADD, just don't keep teaching for 15 minutes, you know, zip around, do things like this.

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So my ADD works perfectly for radio because I'm trying to keep your attention. That's what I'm trying to do. Here it says, okay,

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Jesus entered the village of Capernaum. A Roman captain came up in a panic. Wow, he came up in a panic, panic on the streets of Germany.

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Uh, came over to panic, said, master, my servant is sick. He can't walk. He's in terrible pain.

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Terrible. To quote Charles Barkley, where I live, it's wicked.

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Everything's wicked good. But when I grew up, it was terrible good. And I guess if you're Charles Barkley, it's terrible, terrible good.

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And then it says, uh, oh no, said the captain. I don't want to put you to all that trouble.

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Just give the order and my servant will be fine. I'm a man who takes orders and gives orders. I tell one soldier to go and he goes to another come and he comes and my slave do this.

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And he does it. Jesus taken aback said, I've yet to come across this kind of simple faith in Israel.

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Anyway, what's happening here is lost with the message. I, the centurion am under authority and I recognize you are under authority.

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That's the best. That is such a good insight that the centurion has.

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And he realizes that here is a man Spurgeon said commissioned a man authorized

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Gert with authority. And he looked upon Christ in the same manner, sent of God under divine authority,

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Gert about with a heavenly commission. And I just want to ask, you know, compromise watchers and listeners.

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When was the last time you heard in a theological conversation, the word Gert? I remember

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Thomas Goodwin, the Puritan writer. He'd always say that, you know, everyone hangs on Adam's girdle.

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You're either on Adam's girdle or Christ girdle. I just thought I'd never thought I'd have to say the word girdle in gospel ministry.

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Jesus is sent by God. He's sent by the father with a divine authority. And this man recognizes that very authority

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Gert with a heavenly commission. Well, that's about it for no compromise radio.

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Cause I'm just slumping down when I was sinking down, sinking. Thanks for watching.

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Thanks for listening. Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.