TPW 96 Spiritual Poverty and the Gospel Illustrated by a Roman Centurion

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I don't care what they call themselves and how high -profile their speakers are, together for the gospel, the gospel coalition, gospel this and gospel that, gospel, gospel, gospel.
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If they tell you to trust in anything other than Christ or in addition to Christ, it's not the gospel.
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Welcome to the Protestant Witness, this is Pastor Patrick Hines here at Birtle Heights Presbyterian Church in Kingsport, Tennessee, and today
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I'd like to post this past Sunday morning's sermon on spiritual poverty illustrated in the
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Roman Centurion. It's a wonderful narrative in God's Word and you always feel like you can't really do justice to everything that's in a given passage of Scripture, but I really preached my heart out on this one and it was such a blessing to be able to study this passage from Luke 7 verses 1 -10 and to try to mine out all of the details in it and to present it to God's people in a way that would honor
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God. But I really enjoyed preaching the passage, it's a wonderful text, it's an illustration of everything that Luke covers in his abbreviated version of the
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Sermon on the Mount in Luke chapter 6. So I was able to address the gospel in great detail and the sense of spiritual poverty that accompanies all true believers throughout their entire life and hopefully made application to some of the contemporary problems that are going on in the church with the compromises and denials of the biblical gospel message.
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So I hope that you'll find this to be edifying, I read the whole passage of Luke 7, 1 -10, so just follow along and listen carefully to God's Word and I hope that this edifies your soul.
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Let's pray for God's blessing on our time in this Word now please. Father thank you for breathing forth these precious life -giving words in our
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Bibles. Lord, without your Word our path is dark and we have no guidance and we would be lost.
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Lord may we never take for granted the most wonderful gift that you've given to us in Scripture, your written
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Word, because it is through the written Word that we come into communion with the living Word, Jesus Christ our
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Savior. Pray that we would receive the truth of this wonderful passage we're going to read this morning into our hearts with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts and practice it in our lives.
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We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Please turn your Bibles to Luke 7, pressing on in Luke's gospel,
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Luke chapter 7, wonderful narrative and our sovereign and wise
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God does not do anything by accident. It's no accident this wonderful narrative comes right after the
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Sermon on the Mount in Luke 6 and I think you'll see why here in just a moment. Luke 7, 1 through 10,
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Luke 7, 1 through 10, this is God's Word. When he had completed all his discourse in the hearing of the people, he went to Capernaum and a centurion's slave who was highly regarded by him was sick and about to die.
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When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders asking him to come and save the life of his slave.
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When they came to Jesus, they earnestly implored him saying, he is worthy for you to grant us to him for he loves our nation and it was he who built us a synagogue.
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Now Jesus started on his way with them and when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends saying to him,
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Lord, do not trouble yourself further for I am not worthy for you to come under my roof.
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For this reason, I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you, but just say the word and my servant will be healed.
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For I also am a man placed under authority with soldiers under me and I say to this one go and he goes and to another come and he comes and to my slave do this and he does it.
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Now when Jesus heard this, he marveled at him and turned and said to the crowd that was following him,
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I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith. When those who have been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.
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May God bless the reading of his infallible word. The way that we order the books of the
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Bible in our English Bibles is different in the Old Testament than the Jews did. In the
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West, in the Western world that we live in, we tend to want things to be in chronological order. We want to know the order that things happened.
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And this has caused some Bible critics, of course, to look at differences in chronology that you see in the
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Gospels and in some of the historical sections of the Old Testament as errors. But obviously, slight differences in chronology to something is not an error.
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The Hebrew mindset was to express its theology through time, not necessarily always in chronological order.
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It's a way of expressing the truth in a slightly different way. In the Jewish ordering of the
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Old Testament, the book of Ruth, we discovered when I was in seminary, the book of Ruth follows immediately after the book of Proverbs.
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And if you know the book of Proverbs well, what is the very last passage of the book of Proverbs about? It's about the wife of noble character whose worth is far above rubies.
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And it gives this glorious description of what a godly wife is like. And what's the very next book in the
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Jewish ordering? The book of Ruth. And who is Ruth? Was she Jewish? She was a
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Moabite woman. A Moabite, a non -Israelite, one of the greatest examples of godly womanhood found in the entire
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Old Testament. What a message that must have sent to the Jewish people reading the Old Testament. The book that bears her name follows immediately after Proverbs 31, 10 to 31.
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And while those verses were fresh in the minds of Jewish readers and hearers, then followed the narrative about Ruth.
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The woman who refused to leave Naomi after her husband died. And the reason she would not stay where they lived there in Moab was she loved the one true and living
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God. She said, wherever you go, I will go because you know the true
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God and that your God is my God. God blesses her faithfulness by her marriage eventually to Boaz and Ruth has a son named
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Obed, who begets Jesse, who begets David. And then eventually we see the name of a
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Moabite woman in the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.
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Here in Luke 7, 1 through 10, immediately after Luke's abbreviated
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Sermon on the Mount, we have the godly character of the saved and blessed person illustrated perfectly in yet another non -Israelite, a
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Roman centurion. As we walk through this passage together, try to bear in mind what we've learned about the person who is truly blessed by God.
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What is a person like? What is their character like if they really do know God and they really are blessed and happy?
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They are poor in spirit. They think nothing of themselves spiritually. They mourn over their sin.
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They're sad over their sin and the sin all around them, the unbelief all around them. They hunger for righteousness.
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They love their enemies. They give generously and the fruit they bear and the words they speak tell the world what is in their hearts.
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A lesson that our sovereign God, Creator and Redeemer is teaching us here in this narrative we just read in Luke 7, in Proverbs and in Ruth and throughout the whole
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Bible is this. God's grace is not and never was limited to one race of people.
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God saves prostitutes from Jericho, Moabitesses from the dark and awful nation of Moab.
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Remember where Moab came from? From incest between Lot and his daughters.
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They had one son named Moab, came one of the most bloodthirsty, darkest pagan nations on earth.
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And then Ammon, another bloodthirsty, dark pagan nation that came from incest between a father and his daughters,
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Lot and his two daughters. And yet here you have one of the godliest women in the Old Testament, Ruth, was a
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Moabite. No one is any match for the grace of God. God wants to go get somebody, they are no problem.
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When Jesus spoke of those blessed characteristics, he simply says, blessed are you. Blessed are you.
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It didn't matter where you were from, it didn't matter what your background was, what you had done with your life, didn't matter what color your skin was, what language you spoke or who your parents were.
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Any image of God, no matter who they are, if they feel in the depths of their soul the poverty of spirit of which
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Jesus said was blessed, if they feel that mourning over sin, that hungering for righteousness, if they experience the hatred, the excluding, the insults and the scorn of the world for righteousness and for the son of man's sake, they are blessed and they are happy no matter who they are.
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Even a Roman centurion. This would not apply only to the Jews, but to every group of human beings in Adam's race on earth.
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The Sermon on the Mount is going to be illustrated for us by this remarkable Roman soldier who had obviously been supernaturally visited with the new birth from on high long before he had this encounter with Jesus.
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And as we will see at the end, the Roman centurion's faith was so great, was so great that his faith is the only thing
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Jesus marveled at in his entire earthly ministry. As far as we know, that was good.
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Jesus did marvel at one other thing. He marveled at the unbelief of the people in Nazareth because they knew him.
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They knew him when he had been a child. You see, usually it was sinners that marveled at Jesus. People marveled at him all the time.
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People marveled at and they were astonished by the miracles that Jesus did, the healings he did, the profound things that he taught.
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Huge crowds came and heard all of these things that Jesus said and did.
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And they came from miles away to be healed by him and also just to listen to him. So people were astonished at and marveled at Jesus constantly.
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Even Pontius Pilate marveled and was astonished by the fact that Jesus said nothing in defense of himself.
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Pilate would have been no doubt used to listening to men pleading their innocence and begging him for mercy.
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Jesus astonished Pilate by his silence. Even as Pilate said, don't you realize
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I could have you crucified? And Jesus said, you don't have any authority over me unless it was given to you from above.
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Pilate was afraid of him. He was astonished by that. Jesus astonished people constantly because everything he did was perfect and people weren't used to seeing that.
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The miracles he did were stupendous. They were amazing. The things he said were with authority in a manner never heard before by people then living.
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But here we have a rare instance where Jesus was amazed and he marveled at something. The only other time he marveled, as I said, was in Nazareth after he preached in the synagogue.
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Remember what happened? Remember how that ended in Luke 4? The people drove him out of the synagogue and they were going to throw him off a cliff. Jesus marveled at their unbelief, but Jesus was astonished at that Greek verb, thalmazo.
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He was amazed. He was impressed at the strength of faith that this pagan
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Roman had. Now folks, all of us ought to have a lot more faith than we do.
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All of us ought to have more confidence in God. All of us are turned back too quickly from things that we ought to pursue and do because we lack faith.
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How often do we express our doubts? We express our complaints and we express our hopelessness so often.
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We fail to believe that our Lord could save this nation that we live in, that the Lord could if he wants to.
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He may not, but he can if he wants to save the PCA. We don't believe that God can revive the church in our day sometimes.
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Sometimes I don't. I'm post -millennial, but I don't act like it. I act like I'm dispensational, pre -meal preacher of rapture.
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Let's get out of here kind of person. We fail to believe that Jesus' gospel is still the most unstoppable and powerful expression of the power of God in the whole universe.
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So let us learn here again. The Old Testament believers were instructed to learn from a
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Moabite woman. Here's what godly wifehood looks like. Here's what a godly woman really looks like.
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And here in the gospels, Jesus is giving us as an example for all time, a
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Roman centurion to learn from and to look at. His great faith is the simple byproduct of the supernatural work of God in his life, however.
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So let's walk through the passage. Look at verses one through three again. The centurion's desperate concern for his slave.
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Look at one through three. When he had completed all his discourse and the hearing of the people, he went to Capernaum. And a centurion's slave, who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die.
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When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders, asking him to come and save the life of his slave.
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Okay, stop here. There is a lot in these three verses. The Sermon on the Mount is not a straightforward account of the gospel message itself.
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It is rather a glorious picture of what discipleship looks like, what true followers and knowers of God look like, and when they're fueled by the gospel.
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One can tell a blessed person from a cursed person by the description in the Sermon on the Mount. There are several traits that the blessed person illustrates, and what this centurion illustrates right here in the passage, right from the
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Sermon on the Mount. The term for slave that's used there in the original language, it refers to a purchased person who was owned and considered as property by his owner.
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And those slaves, the doulos, they were entirely at the disposal of their owners. In Matthew's account of this very same narrative, the slave is referred to by a more affectionate term, the term pais, which means child or son.
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So this Roman centurion owned a slave, but he was so fond of him, he regarded him so highly, he actually calls him his son, his child.
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A slave was highly regarded by the centurion. At this time, slaves, the doulos, tended not to be highly regarded by anyone if they were regarded as anything better than a dog.
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The pagan writer Aristotle described doulos as living tools. The Roman author
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Varro said that the only difference between a slave, an animal, and a cart was that the slave could talk.
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But the new birth from on high transforms the pitiless heart of the unbeliever into the concerned heart of a child of God.
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One of the surest marks that a person is converted to God and is a true disciple is the regard they have for all human beings, no matter their wealth, health, condition, station in life, skin color, or background.
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Child of God sees in the face of every other human being the image of God.
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They see the image of the God that they love and adore. And that's why they're concerned about human beings.
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The disciple of Christ does not enjoy insulting, deprecating, or picking on anyone ever.
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Because the love of God is in their hearts, they're not going to treat people that way. They're not going to treat other images of God that way.
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They derive no pleasure in the suffering of others or in elevating themselves outwardly or in their own minds over anyone around them.
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They know that they are what they are by the grace of God alone and not due to any merit in themselves.
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And that's why they have real concern for other people. Therefore, they don't see themselves as better than anyone else in the ultimate sense.
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Grace and the free and sovereign love of God are what make men to differ from one another. Because the centurion knows that, it doesn't matter that this slave is merely a slave.
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Because the spirit of God lives in this man's heart. Because he really does know the one true
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God. He sees that slave, that person he owns, he sees them as an image bearer of God just like him.
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Just as much in need of God's grace as he is. And were their positions to be reversed, the
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Roman centurion would want his slave to be concerned about his life too. Yes, there will be times that we have to apply
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Matthew 7 -6 to people. They're swine and they're dogs whom we are commanded by God not to cast our pearls in front of.
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But we must suspend our judgment for a long time before we arrive at that kind of a conclusion. And regardless of our assessment of people, the fact that they are images of God ought to create in us a genuine concern for their well -being and eternal destiny.
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The fact that this Roman centurion, Roman soldier, a well -paid and high -ranking man himself was actually close friends, not just with Jews, but with Jewish elders who were part of a local synagogue is also amazing.
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It was unheard of. Roman soldiers did not go to synagogues at this time.
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They were not friends with Jews. Without a doubt, this Roman centurion who had command over a hundred soldiers himself had been sent to Capernaum in the first place in order to keep the peace in that place.
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Among Romans and especially among Roman soldiers, Jews were not well -liked people.
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Romans detested the Jews. They were constantly rebelling and causing trouble because they felt that the
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Romans shouldn't even be in their land, much less ruling them in it. That this particular centurion was able to overcome the prejudice and hatred of his comrades and his fellow soldiers to come to love not just the
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Jewish people, but the one true God is itself something to marvel at, to be astonished by.
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What a proof of God's omnipotence. The majority of Romans saw Jews as a filthy race and they hated them and hated their religion and saw it as a barbaric superstition.
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No amount of bias or prejudice, however, can overcome our sovereign God. This man was elect from before the foundation of the world and chosen in Christ to be holy and blameless before him.
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Jewish people in particular at this time were typically not friends with Romans or Roman soldiers.
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But not only was this man friends with Jews, he actually sent a group of Jewish elders to find
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Jesus. Folks, you have to understand how scandalous this would have been. A Roman telling
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Jewish elders, you guys, would you please go over there? And they all obey him. Unheard of that that would happen.
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Unheard of. Centurion sent Jewish elders. You know what that Greek word is for elders?
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Presbyteros. He sent Presbyterians to go talk to Jesus and they obeyed him.
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They obeyed him. A Roman soldier sends Jewish elders to Jesus to ask him to come and save the life of his highly regarded slave.
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And I have no doubt at all that this Roman soldier had to work long, I bet he had to work long and labor hard to earn the love, the friendship, and the trust of the
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Jewish people. Remember the Jews? They wouldn't even talk to Gentiles. They would much less go into their home or have anything to do with them.
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But remember what we learned about the true disciples of Christ? Remember what we learned about true followers of the one God from Luke 6?
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See Luke 6 31? Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?
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For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?
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For even sinners do the same. This Roman saw Jews as his friends.
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And most Romans saw Jews as their enemies. And the Jews returned the favor. They saw the
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Romans as their enemies. And the two groups were mutual enemies to one another. By and large, that's what they were.
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But this centurion lived out another great trait of true disciples of Christ of which the world knows not.
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You see verse 35 of Luke 6? But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the
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Most High, for he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. You can almost know for sure it was this
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Roman who sought out the Jews. Who had to work hard to become friends with them.
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Who had to put himself out there and to try to talk to them because the Jews would have wanted nothing to do with a
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Roman overlord, a Roman soldier. Loving one's enemies. It's not easy to do. But it's the natural fruit of the spirit of God in a person's life.
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With God, it's not merely possible. It happens. It's real. It's something that God's people will do.
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They will love their enemies. They will do good to those that mistreat them. They will love their enemies.
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They will do good and lend, expecting nothing in reward. Remember that wonderful summary, the very last verse of Romans 12, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
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How did this heathen Roman, I would love to know the backstory here. How did this heathen
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Roman overcome the hatred of his own fellow soldiers against Jews and the hatred of the
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Jews themselves against him? How did he do it? What did he do? He overcame evil hatred with good.
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Those who truly know God have done this for centuries. Love gives with no expectation in return.
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The world knows nothing of this because it's love is always selfishly motivated at its heart.
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But we love others as God's people. If we really are God's people, we love others with the same free self -giving love that God showered upon us in Jesus Christ.
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This is what overcomes all evil in the world. Our good, the good of the church and the good of God's people in Christ overcomes and brings to not the evil that surrounds us.
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That's a lesson we need to know, especially as we live in evil and dark times. Look at verses four and five of Luke seven.
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After he sends the Jewish elders, verse four, when they came to Jesus, they earnestly implored him saying, he is worthy for you to grant this to him, for he loves our nation.
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And it was he who built us our synagogue. Sadly, true to form, these
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Jewish elders appeal to Jesus to heal the centurion slave on the basis of what? He's worthy for you to come do this.
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He is worthy for you to grant this to him. Now I want to point out to you, them telling
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Jesus that was no doubt their idea, not the centurions. He did not send those guys to go talk to Jesus.
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Make sure you tell him about the synagogue I built you and how beautiful it is and how much it costs me. No way.
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He told him that, but they're thinking in terms of their works, righteousness system. He's worthy Jesus to come do this for him.
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He's worthy. He loves our nation and he has built us a synagogue. We know that's not the centurions idea because the narrative goes on to tell us in verse six that eventually after he sends the elders, he sends a second group.
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He feels too convicted. This is not right. This man shouldn't even come near me or near my house.
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I'm not worthy that he should even bother himself. All he needs to do is say a word from where he is.
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That's it. Notice here what these elders tell Jesus about the centurion. He said, they say he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue.
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Now folks, you got to understand that would have made that centurion very unpopular with the
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Romans. No doubt they would have said to him, what are you thinking? And encouraging these people, they're the ones who are constantly fighting to keep the peace around here.
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You're, you're a member of the synagogue. You built them a synagogue. What is wrong with you? He was no doubt very unpopular.
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What it shows is that this man had been drawn by God to himself. This Roman centurion knew the true
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God. He knew the one God who existed was the God revealed in the pages of the old
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Testament scriptures and in the law of God. And because of that, he built a synagogue for the
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Jews, because a synagogue was the place where the Bible was read and taught. And no doubt that's what he wanted to hear.
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The word of God, and he wanted other people around him to hear the word of God. It is incredible to note as well that these
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Jewish elders from the synagogue credit him as being the one and the only one who built that synagogue.
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Normally, I mean, if a synagogue would be built, you'd have a bunch of other people throwing in their money. I mean, don't you think that the
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Jewish people at that time, the Pharisees would have wanted to have a brick with their name on it. I donated the money for this brick.
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And yet they attribute the whole building to him. Not he helped us build a synagogue, but he built us a synagogue.
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Now, centurions, as I found out this week, centurions, not the lower soldiers, but centurions were actually fairly well paid.
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They were paid 50 to 100 times more than the lowest soldiers under them. Because the centurion loved the truth, he wanted a place where not only he, but others could hear the word of God.
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It was worth the cost to him personally to see this done. Remember from the
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Sermon on the Mount, Luke 638, that we just read, give and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over for by your standard of measure will be measured to you in return.
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At this time, there were very few Jews who believed and understood the truth regarding the Messiah as their own
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Old Testament scriptures taught about him. But like Cornelius, remember Cornelius? What was he?
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Another one of these Roman commanders, centurion, the Roman centurion, Cornelius, who stood at the foot and also the one that stood at the foot of the cross, a different centurion who stood at the cross.
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This pagan nobody here we're reading about in Luke 7, in the eyes of the religious establishment, had had his eyes open to see himself for the spiritual ruin that he was and saw his mercy in the face of Christ, the
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Messiah. Look at verse six or verse six and following. Now, Jesus started on his way with them, and when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends saying to him,
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Lord, do not trouble yourself further, for I am not worthy for you to come under my roof.
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Jesus goes with the Jewish elders toward the centurion's house, but the more the centurion reflects on the situation before him that this holy man, this mighty prophet of God who clearly has the power of God operating in him to heal people, and he knows that he can do it and he clearly speaks for God and is able to do this, the centurion and just thinking about him coming to his house, he recognizes something that we need to recognize.
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He is overwhelmed by something that so few in his day seem to be overwhelmed with at all.
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And that's what his own utter unworthiness. What is being illustrated here? Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are those who hunger and thirst.
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Just the thought, he's coming to my house, he's coming to my house. It's not right for him to be here.
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It's one thing to lack confidence as a person in front of other people and to be a little insecure about yourself.
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It's quite another to recognize that if you and I knew that Jesus was walking towards our house to talk to us or to heal someone that we loved, don't you think that we'd be thinking about it, anticipating it and saying, maybe it'd be better if you healed him from a distance.
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I'm not worthy for you to come into my house. Remember what Jesus pronounced? Blessed are you poor, blessed are you who mourn, blessed are you who weep, for you shall laugh.
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Yours is the kingdom of God. You shall be satisfied. The centurion's desperate concern for his beloved slave, that hasn't changed at all, but he simply can't live with the idea.
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He just cannot handle the idea that someone so special, so holy, someone so full of God coming under the roof of his house.
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Do you see how he's illustrating everything we just learned in the Sermon on the Mount? He's illustrating it perfectly. He feels guilty for troubling
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Jesus even to make the trip from where he was all the way to his house. This is the very kind of brokenness and contrition which the word of God teaches is absolutely essential to knowing
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God through Christ. Without this kind of poverty of spirit, this kind of mourning over sin, this painful hunger for righteousness, a sinner cannot possibly understand the message and meaning of Jesus and his mission.
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What does the cross mean to the religiously self -assured? What does the cross mean to the religiously self -assured? It doesn't mean anything.
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It's a religious symbol. It means nothing. You know, one thing I do, it's kind of painful.
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Try to keep track of who are the religious or the pop icons of our day. And it really is amazing how many of them have crosses all over their bodies, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, crosses all over.
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The cross doesn't mean anything to people who don't recognize how evil they are, how utterly unworthy they are of God.
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It's just a symbol, has some kind of mystical significance about it. But Jesus has a special meaning only for those who understand.
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I'm not worthy that he should even take one step off of his path toward me or where I live.
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What does the cross mean to those who have never had a single thought about themselves and their life that agrees with the word of God?
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Their thoughts don't agree with the word of God. What does the word of God say about us? There is none righteous. No, not one.
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What are those Pharisees? What are those Jewish elders? What did they say to Jesus when they caught up with him? This man who sent us, he's worthy, he's worthy.
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And what does that man's self -assessment say? I'm not worthy. I am not worthy.
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Don't trouble yourself to come here. It's not right that you should even come under my roof. You see, we only have correct and right thoughts about ourselves when those thoughts agree with the word of God.
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What does the word of God teach about us? We are all unclean. We are worthless, sinful, vile, wicked in the sight of God.
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And what does the message of Jesus mean to those who do not make that self -assessment? He means nothing to them.
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But to those who feel the crushing weight of their sin and the depths of their soul, those who understand exactly what this centurion is talking about when he says,
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Lord, don't trouble yourself any further. I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof.
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Who is worthy for Jesus to come under their roof? Who is worthy that he would turn our way and even look at us?
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Who is worthy to talk to him? Who is worthy to stand in the presence of God incarnate? Who is worthy of the love of God?
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Who is worthy of the mercy of God? No one is, not you, not me, not anyone.
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It is the children of God who feel the growing disgust in their bones every day with how much better they want to be.
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But it always seems just out of reach. It is true. It is the true people of God who can hardly lift their eyes to heaven and even talk sometimes.
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It is we who live in our hearts on our knees before the holy, who can't understand how or why the
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God of heaven and earth would regard us. Listen to us. Give us Bibles. Give us the people who loved us and taught us the gospel.
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But he has. The love of God for us poor, weak, miserable, pathetic sinners has been demonstrated and irreversibly anchored to history and forever settled are these words in heaven, the words of eternal life in our
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Bibles, the promises of salvation, the promises of God. You see those promises and those great statements, those promises of forgiveness and acceptance and justification, those overcome our self -abasement.
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They overcome our self -hatred and the overwhelming feelings of unworthiness to show us the love of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
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That's why those many statements that the Bible makes to us that we can boldly approach the throne of grace, we have boldness and confidence to enter the most holy place.
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You see, those statements only make sense to those whose assessment of themselves is the same as the centurions.
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I am not worthy. And the word of God's answer is that is correct. You aren't.
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But in Christ, you have boldness and confidence before God that he hears our every prayer and that he accepts us fully in his sight.
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What's so wonderful in this narrative before us is that although the centurion decides he is too unworthy for Jesus to be near him,
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Jesus still grants his original request. And we also find out that this feeling of sinful unworthiness was the reason that the centurion sent others.
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He sends a second group in his stead to make the request of Jesus and tell him to stop coming towards my house.
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Just tell him that if he says the word from there, I know that my servant can be healed, but he shouldn't come into my house.
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I'm not worthy for him to come here. Even after those elders, if there was someone that could speak in your behalf to a
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Jewish rabbi, it would be the elders of the local synagogue. If they all think you're worthy, even though you're a Roman, hey, you ought to be in with that rabbi.
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But he has a higher authority telling him what he really is. That's the Holy Spirit of God. When the
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Holy Spirit convicts you of your sin, it doesn't matter who else thinks you're worthy. You know you're unworthy.
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Look at verses seven and eight. For this reason, I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you, but just say the word and my servant will be healed.
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For I also am a man placed under authority with soldiers under me, and I say to this one, go, and he goes, and to another come, and he comes, and to my slave do this, and he does it.
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Look at verse seven again. For this reason, I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you.
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Centurion himself didn't go, at least in this narrative, he didn't go. But just say the word and my servant will be healed.
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Centurion has no doubts at all about Jesus's ability to heal. He has no doubts at all about him.
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Where are his doubts located? In himself, in my worthiness that he would even come here. He has no doubts about who
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Jesus is and what he can do. His doubts are focused on himself, his unworthiness. He can't imagine that the
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Holy One would be comfortable in the face of his unworthiness. But let us learn from this episode that it is this very attitude of broken unworthiness and grief over one's sin that is the surest footprint of God's powerful grace in a person's life.
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If you understand why that centurion said on second thought, just have him heal him from there and don't tell him not to trouble himself any further.
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If you know why he's saying that, you're the blessed person. You're the happy person. If you feel sad, you should feel happy.
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If you mourn, you ought to laugh. If you're poor, you are spiritually rich in the sight of God because your treasure is in Christ, not yourself.
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Jesus came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Jesus came to save sinners of whom each of us is the chief.
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The centurion's explanation of his understanding of Jesus's power and authority is remarkable to hear. The centurion knew what it was to be under authority and to be in authority as well.
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As a commander of men in the army, his word was law. If he commanded his men to go, they went.
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If he told a slave to do something, they did it. So great is this man's faith in Jesus that he knows there's no need for him to come to my house, but simply to say the word and he could heal them from any distance.
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He could heal them from the moon. He says in verse seven, just say the word and my servant will be healed.
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And folks, what we need to see and recognize is that everyone in here is different. We're all different from one another. All Christians are a little bit different.
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There are measures of faith that God grants to people. This man had a very high level of faith.
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He had very great faith, very strong faith. He expresses no doubts, none in Jesus's ability.
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He only despises himself and his own sinfulness. The centurion knows that in the position of authority that Jesus has only a word from there was needed for a servant to be healed.
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He knows he doesn't need to lay hands on him. He doesn't need to come into my house. He doesn't need to actually see him.
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All he needs to do is just think it and he has such power and authority to heal at a distance.
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Even Jesus didn't need to be close. Jesus doesn't need to lay hands.
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All he needs to do is will it, and it will happen. Centurion knows that fully what great faith he had, you know, in the gospel of John and chapter four versus 49 and following there's another narrative about the healing of a noble man's son.
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And he comes to Jesus and says, sir, come down before my child dies. And Jesus tells him, go your way.
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Your son lives. The man believes him. But later on in that narrative, we read quote, then he inquired of them, of them in the house when he got better.
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And they said to him yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him. So the father knew that it was the same hour in which
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Jesus said to him, your son lives. Did he believe Jesus could do it? Yeah. But he had to just want to make sure.
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Just want to check. What time was it? What time was it when he, when the fever actually left just to make sure it wasn't a coincidence.
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Does that man have faith? Yes. Is it as strong as the centurions? Nope. This man had great faith.
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The centurion had great faith. Centurion has no doubts whatsoever. His faith is stronger.
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His faith was, as Jesus says, great. The nobleman in John four marches right up to Jesus, right to his face.
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Apparently having no, no problems with unworthiness, sir, come down here before my child dies.
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And then the nobleman makes sure it was Jesus's word that healed the boy by checking what time of day the fever left him. Centurion does not march up to Jesus.
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He doesn't feel worthy of doing so. In fact, he sends Jewish elders in his place to ask in his behalf, and then he thinks better of it and sends a second group to tell him, stop troubling yourself.
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Just say the word from there. I'm not worthy that you should come into my house. Could it be dear congregation that the strength of our faith will be in direct proportion to how lowly we think of ourselves?
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Could it be that how much Jesus might marvel at us will be directly related to how unworthy of him we see ourselves to be?
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The more unworthy we feel, the stronger our faith in Jesus Christ will be. I'll tell you, it's a blessing to know you're an unworthy wretch.
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You know, when J. Gresham Machen, 100 years ago, when he saw his denomination, his beloved Presbyterian denomination, starting to go off the tracks, starting to turn liberal, starting to deny this, that, and the other thing, you know, one of the things that he chronicled, he went through the new editions of their hymnals and started noticing how they were changing the words to songs.
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You know, at one of those liberal Presbyterian churches up in Akron, we sang Amazing Grace, and I had never sung it like this before.
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Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved someone like me. I remember thinking, that's not how that goes.
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What are the real words that saved a what? A wretch. You see, if you feel worthy, this, the whole
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Bible has no context in which it can make any sense to you. What are we? We are wretched.
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If you know that poverty of spirit, that mourning in your soul for your sin, that painful hunger for more obedience and righteousness in your life, you will also know what it is to rely fully and strongly and greatly upon your dear savior.
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The more unworthy you know yourself to be, you will know that much more who is your all in all, who is your whole salvation, who is your whole forgiveness, your whole righteousness before God, and your grounds of entrance into heaven itself at the final judgment at the last day.
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Solus Christus, Christ alone. The more unworthy we feel in ourselves, the stronger will be our assurance trusting in Christ.
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The sense of unworthiness that God's people have in their souls. It is such a precious gift to them.
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It's what keeps us clinging to the blood and righteousness of our Lord and savior. Christians trust only in Christ and in nothing else to save them and to get them into heaven.
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That's why we call him savior. Christians never confuse the fruits of faith in Christ with Christ himself.
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They never confuse the byproduct of their faith as being that which will save them because they know that it's only
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Christ. No Christian believes that they will be finally saved by the fruits of their faith or by their works, by their sanctification, by their pursuit of holiness, by how well they put sin to death or by anything at all whatsoever they do.
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They know that it is Christ and Christ alone who saves. And I promise you, I guarantee you that this man, this
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Roman centurion felt every bit as unworthy the day he died as he did right here in Luke seven.
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I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy that God should bother with me, but my savior has saved me.
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The legal grounds of our entrance into heaven is Christ shed blood to make full satisfaction to divine justice in our place.
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And Jesus's obedience to the law imputed to our legal account. This alone is where the
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Christian's trust resides, both at the very moment of their effectual calling and at their final moment of mortal life before they draw their final breath.
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And if you've ever held the hand of someone who's dying and you talk to them, are you ready? Are you ready?
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The Christian, yes, I am. Not because I'm worthy, but because the one in whom I trust is for me.
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The place of refuge they have is in Jesus. It never changes. It's the same the first day and the last day of our walk with God.
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Our faith is in Christ because only Christ has met the law's demands. Only Christ's righteousness has the merit necessary to save us.
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Only Christ's cross work has the forgiving power that we need. Justification and getting into heaven is by faith alone because justification and getting into heaven are by the blood and righteousness of Christ alone.
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Never forget that. Never be moved from it. Never let any gospel groups out there take that from you.
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I don't care what they call themselves and how high profile their speakers are together for the gospel, the gospel coalition, gospel, this and gospel, that gospel, gospel, gospel.
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If they tell you to trust in anything other than Christ or in addition to Christ, it's not the gospel.
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Centurion felt unworthy for one very simple reason. You know why he felt unworthy? Because he was unworthy.
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If you feel unworthy of going to heaven, it's because you are unworthy. You and I, I pray with all my heart that no one under my pastoral care will ever have a moment in their life where they feel worthy of going to heaven, because the day you feel worthy of going to heaven is the day you're not going to be trusting in Christ alone anymore.
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Even after a lifetime of sanctification, we are no more righteous before God in the sense of satisfying the law's requirements than we were the moment we were declared righteous when we were first converted.
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No matter how much progress you make in your life as a Christian, no matter how many sins you put to death, no matter how many temptations that you no longer struggle with, you are no more righteous in the sense of satisfying the law's demands than you were the moment you were declared righteous.
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And don't let anyone lie to you and tell you otherwise. The only righteousness that can stand to the severity of God's holy tribunal is that righteousness that was achieved by Christ.
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Don't let anyone take him from you ever. This centurion embodies the picture of discipleship in the
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Sermon on the Mount. What was that centurion? He was poor in spirit. He felt unworthy.
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What else did we see illustrated? He gave generously. What did Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount? Give generously.
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The centurion, out of his own pocket, built a synagogue. His faith was strong because of all those things.
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He sees no hope at all in himself. And because of that, he has more confidence.
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More faith in an all -sufficient redeemer. Great evangelist Charles Spurgeon said, he that maketh lightly of sin shall maketh lightly of the
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Savior. Indeed, he's right. This man who didn't think himself worthy to have Jesus in his house, he had great faith for that very reason.
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The key to understanding why Jesus marveled at this guy was his self -assessment.
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He said, I'm not worthy that he should come under my roof. That's why his faith is so great.
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A man who sees nothing worthy of trusting in inside himself will see everything he needs in Jesus Christ.
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So are you a wretch? When you sing Amazing Grace, I don't care what the hymnal says, you say wretch.
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What a precious gift it is indeed to see it. For it is only because we know ourselves to be wretched that we know
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Christ and all of his beautiful, holy, perfect, pristine mercy and saving holiness. This man who didn't think himself worthy to have
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Jesus in his house, he's the only man that ever astonished Jesus during his earthly ministry.
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It's pretty amazing. The one guy who said he shouldn't even come in here, Jesus was amazed by his faith.
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Look at verses 9 and 10. Now, when Jesus heard this, he marveled at him.
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He was astonished at him and turned and said to the crowd that was following him, I say to you, not even in Israel have
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I found such great faith. When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.
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Verse 9 uses that verb, thaumato, to marvel. Bauer, Donker, Arden, Gingrich, the lexicon defines it as to be extraordinarily impressed by something, to be extraordinarily impressed by something.
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Obviously here, Jesus is impressed. He was also astonished, remember, at the unbelief of the people in Nazareth when he was there, but not so here.
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What a memorial to this very special Roman soldier. Jesus says in the presence of the elders of that synagogue to this
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Roman, he says to them, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.
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It is the poorest, the saddest and the hungriest who will have the greatest faith in Jesus.
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Those with the lowest assessment of themselves are the most likely to astonish our Lord. The centurion's faith, his slave who was about to die, was then found to be in good health when they returned to the house.
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And notice, we're not told that he asked them what time it was. We may think that God would marvel more at the great heroes of the faith who did such incredible things for Christ and the gospel.
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And God certainly remembers such. But the Christian who carries out their duties and their station in life, whether it's as a soldier, a student, a mother discipling and diapering her children, a father leading family worship, an employee working hard to glorify
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Christ and their calling and their vocation, the elder who prays for the flock, the deacon who fixes the steeple on the church, the student who works hard to get good grades on their tests and good grades on their classes, the congregant who prays for their church's leaders, the husband who tenderly loves and studies his wife, the wife who sees to it that she encourages and builds up her husband.
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Just remember that what Jesus marveled at was the centurion's expression of unworthiness and his great confidence in Jesus.
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Those who see themselves as the most unworthy of Christ will have just that much greater faith in his power and his ability to save them.
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Who was the great example of the noble wife in the Jewish ordering of the Old Testament? God, in the way those books were ordered, had him reading
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Ruth right after Proverbs 31. Who embodied to picture discipleship to the world after the
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Sermon on the Mount in Luke? A Roman centurion. The poor, the mourning, the unworthy and the spiritually famished will see in Jesus their riches, their laughter, their worthiness and their spiritual food far more clearly than anyone else.
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Never forget it. Let's pray. God, we thank you that you've taught us what it is to be poor, to hunger and thirst for righteousness and to mourn over our sin.
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Lord, we're thankful that you've shown us that we're wretched, that you've shown us what that centurion is talking about.
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I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof. That sense of unworthiness is what keeps us clinging with our whole hope of heavenly glory to the cross and righteousness of Jesus.
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May we never be moved away from that precious gift. We pray in Christ's name, Amen. This is
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Pastor Patrick Hines of Brittle Heights Presbyterian Church, located at 108 Brittle Heights Road in Kingsport, Tennessee.
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And you've been listening to the Protestant Witness podcast. Please feel free to join us for worship any
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Sunday morning at 11 a .m. sharp, where we open the word of God together, sing his praises and rejoice in the gospel of our risen
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Lord. You can find us on the web at www .brittleheightspca .org.
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And may the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.