Absolute Authority Luke 7:1-10

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For the men who have served and have given their life that you and I have freedom to worship and we just want to give praise to the

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Lord for the country that he has given to us and we need to stop and pause and just thank the

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Lord for the country that he has given to us. We all have a lot of complaints but we need to remember that the

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Lord has still given us freedom and as I read the scripture he says pray for peace. When you have leaders and you're praying pray for peace and so we need to do that as a country and we just thank the

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Lord for that. Just a few announcements tonight at 6 we have our regular prayer meeting come and join us at that time and also for the men if you have your bulletin in front of you we have a men's breakfast and Bible study this coming

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Saturday at 9. So you come and join and all men we'd like you to come out and we have a time of study at that time.

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So Dexter is going to be giving the study this Saturday and we look forward to that time.

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Also if you notice in your bulletin a couple weeks off there is pastor is starting a summer

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Bible study Friday June the 16th at 530 and they're going to begin and go through the book of Hebrews.

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So put that on your calendar it's a couple of weeks away. Also if you are here early enough and if you're watching the announcements as they go by on the board we've started again putting up our missionaries because we were a little lax and keeping our missionaries in front of you and for this month is

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Ellie Drizinga our missionary in Brazil. She teaches the ladies she teaches young people.

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She also has a big burden of taking care of the finances on the field of Brazil for the organization the mission organization that they have so we want to remember

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Ellie Drizinga. I thought there's one other thing I would mention to you one of our other missionaries

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Jim and Joan Hansen are down in the LA area and they have a mission where they house deaf and deaf blind individuals and they've been here and shared their ministry with us.

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People cannot hear they cannot see so how do you talk to them and it's very interesting they a lot of times have different ways of hand signing they write on their hands is one of the ways they have a typing machine where if the person can hold their fingers in there and then they can type and they can understand and they can respond and so forth and there's about three or four or five different ways that they have ministered.

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Well this ministry has gone on for over 50 years and it's really they have rooms for these people it intrigued me is this when somebody rings their doorbell how do they hear you know well some of them have a fan so when the fan goes on they know somebody's at the door so I'm just saying there's something like that but in saying all that they have decided and the mission has decided to close the ministry down but they have these people there and they're placing them in other facilities so you need to uphold the

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Hansen's as you think about them in prayer also and it's a ministry 24 hours a day they do the shopping for them you know they look after them but there's other facilities around the country not just in California and in their last newsletter they said there's a place that's similar in New Mexico that has taken several of their people and so pray for these people as they have to transfer out and look for places to stay they have a church there in the facility with them and they they talk with them individually and so forth it's quite a ministry so let's just go to to the

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Lord in prayer as we open up this morning Heavenly Father we come to you this day thanking you for the many blessings that we have to honor and glorify you we thank you

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Lord that you've given us a country where we do have the freedom to come together and assemble and to worship you we thank you for all that have come out today we pray

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Heavenly Father that it'll be a special day in each of our hearts as we listen to your word as we praise you in song we pray

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Heavenly Father that is when we go we'll realize it's been great to be here today

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Lord and we would thank you for it we think of the missionaries that we have just mentioned we think of Ellie Driesinger and her ministry there in Brazil today we uphold her before you continue to give her the strength and the wisdom that she needs to carry out her duties and to do it in an honor and pleasing you and we would thank you for that and we think of Jim and Joan Hansen and the ministry that they have there in the

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LA area with the deaf and the deaf -blind such a tough ministry Lord and they have worked for many many years at it and and we would ask

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Heavenly Father that you would help even as the individuals have to move out and find new locations that you would go before each one of these individuals and we would thank you for it now we pray for pastor as he brings your word today pray that you would give him liberty to speak the things you've laid on his heart speak to each of our hearts

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Lord through your word and we'll thank you and pray in Jesus name Amen stand fast in the

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Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again in the bondage we who are of the family of Jesus our

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God are free and let's stand and sing this morning's

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Christian reading is from Romans chapter 1 Romans chapter 1 verse 11 through 15 for I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established that is that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me now

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I do not want you to be unaware brethren that I often plan to come to you but was hindered until now that I might have some fruit among you also just as among the other

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Gentiles I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians both to wise and to unwise so as much as is in me

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I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also let's continue to sing to our

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Heavenly Father please stand I would like to mention that we are celebrating

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Memorial Day this Monday and it's important to remember the sacrifices that our fallen soldiers have made to protect this country protect the future generation from the forces of tyranny and we're blessed even today to be able to worship the

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Lord freely and to hear his word this morning together now

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I would like us to turn to Luke chapter 7 verses 1 through 10 chapter 7 verses 1 through 10 now when he concluded all his sayings in the hearing of the people he entered

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Capernaum and a certain centurions servant who was dear to him was sick and ready to die so when he heard about Jesus he sent elders of the

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Jews to him pleading with him to come and heal his servant and when they came to Jesus they begged him earnestly saying that the one for whom he should do this was deserving for he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue then

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Jesus went with him and when he was already not far from the house the centurion sent friends to him saying to him

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Lord do not trouble yourself for I am NOT worthy that you should enter my under my roof therefore

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I did not even think myself worthy to come to you but say the word and my servant will be healed for I also am a man placed under authority having soldiers under me and I say to one go and he goes into another come and he comes and to my servant do this and he does it when

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Jesus heard these things he marveled at him and turned around and said to the crowd that followed him

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I say to you I have not found such great faith not even in Israel and those who went were sent returning to the house found the servant well who had been sick let us pray father we're thankful that you are in control and that your son has the authority to restore all things father thank you that Jesus has restored and will fully restore the whole world from sin and the effects of sin because he died for us on the cross and father we pray that as we even remember the sacrifices of the fallen soldiers tomorrow this weekend that we would also remember the sacrifice that Christ had given in order that we may live father we pray that your spirit would work in all of our hearts to hear your word and that we would be transformed by the preaching of the word in Jesus name man this story this passage comes right after the

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Sermon on the Mount and as we recall the Sermon on the Mount detailed how

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Jesus kingdom is different from the existing kingdom whether it's

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Rome Babylon it was a complete reversal of its values and ethics not only that this

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Sermon on the Mount the Sermon on the Mount showed what is the reality for the new covenant people and for us who are not used to the term covenant covenant is a treaty a promise that God would make with his people in order to form a relationship for covenant for a covenant between God and his people it required faithfulness an obedient response from the people and a gracious deliverance from God in the majority of the

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Old Testament operated under what we call the old covenant the Mosaic covenant the covenant that was instituted by God between him and the nation of Israel and the old covenant was very unique in a way that it separated

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Israel from all the other nations it made Israel a special possession for the

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Lord and because of that the laws of Israel made Israel stand out and we when we think of the law we our eyes glaze over and we think about bacon and shrimp that we cannot eat but that's that wasn't the purpose of the law the purpose of the law was to set apart

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Israel so that people around Israel would take note and see wow

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Israel is so blessed I wonder why and the answer of course would be because they worship the one true

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God all the laws that they kept or were supposed to keep reminded even taught people all around the nations around the

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Lord is really holy right the dietary laws for Israel was not to oppress them in any way it was to show how

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God's people and therefore their God whom they worship is so distanced from even a reminder of death right shrimp pigs those were animals that normally eat flesh dead flesh and what it showed the

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Israelites and also the surrounding nations would be they worship a

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God of life they stay away from anything that's close to death and so on their their moral code was pure right they they treated slaves like humans they were sexually pure they did not commit all these barbaric horrendous practices of the pagan nations around them that's how the

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Old Covenant worked it was centered around the nation of Israel and the whole nation's main interaction with God was indirect that they would see and experience the goodness and holiness of the

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Lord through Israel now what's surprising is right after the sermon that explained and proclaimed the ethics and the values of the

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New Covenant a different covenant there is a

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Gentile centurion who is the focus of the passage and remember under the

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Old Covenant the Gentiles the Gentiles are just a broad name for anyone else who are not

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Jews you me uh we're all

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Gentiles unless you can say that you're ethnically Jewish so under the

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Old Covenant the Gentiles were vastly left out they did not belong to God because they were not a part of God's people unless they converted to Judaism the vast majority of them of course did not they rebelled against God continuously they worshiped false gods and unless you became a

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Jew a Gentile had no place at the table they had really no dealings with God but what this passage shows is a

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Gentile soldier who trusts in the

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Lord even though he has not seen him and not only that Jesus praises his faith that would have been almost unheard of in ancient

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Israel maybe a priest might have been praised for his faith a prophet a

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Levite even any other Jew from any other tribe but a

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Roman soldier and this passage foreshadows what the

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New Covenant people will look like the New Covenant people under Jesus Christ when he inaugurates his covenant through his blood his people will be reconciled and restored together as one people no matter their background socioeconomic background ethnic background they will be one people under the

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New Covenant in Christ and this is important today because even in the early church the distinction between the

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Jews and the Gentiles was clear and it lingered one of the main problems one of the main obstacles for the early church was the question of do the

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Gentiles convert to Judaism first in order to know God or do they suddenly become

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God's people as the church without having to follow all the Jewish customs and laws and this passage foreshadows that in fact the

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Gentiles will be included as God's people without any distinction from the

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Jews the main point of this passage is that we humbly reach out to Christ to be restored and reconciled together because we trust

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Christ's superior authority we humbly reach out to Christ to be restored and reconciled together because we trust

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Christ's superior authority first regardless of our background we faithfully reach out to Christ for restoration who reconciles us regardless of our background we faithfully reach out to Christ for restoration who reconciles us now right after Jesus sermon about his kingdom we meet our first example of faith in Capernaum now when he concluded all his sayings in the hearing of the people he entered

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Capernaum Luke emphasizes the temporal context of this miraculous account it is after Jesus sermon regarding his kingdom and the new covenant and there's a reason for this narrative's placement right after the sermon it's to make a point what example of faith will you see in Christ's new covenant people geographically this happens in Capernaum it's the northern part of the

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Sea of Galilee now verse two tells us why this account is unique and a certain centurion servant who was dear to him was sick and ready to die the main problem the main conflict that shows up is that a centurion a roman commander in charge of 100 soldiers right century we get that from the roman word right 100 the centurion is in charge of 100 soldiers now what

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Luke does is he chooses a story with a gentile soldier to give us a glimpse of what a faithful response to Jesus looks like this is astounding because all throughout the old testament most men and women of faith were ethnic jews however we have a plot twist in God's redemptive history when the messiah and his kingdom came to the world one of the first faithful seekers is not a priest not a levite not even a jew but a gentile soldier there is something drastically different about the new covenant in Christ than the old covenant and his reason for seeking

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Jesus is that his servant who is dear to him is sick and this tells us what kind of man the soldier is first he is a compassionate commander he cares for his the well he is he cares for his the for the health of his servant so much that he goes through all the trouble to seek

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Christ and bring him to heal him second it also tells us the centurion's view of Jesus he obviously believes that Jesus is capable of healing he has faith in Jesus ability to restore despite never having seen

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Jesus in real life he's probably heard about him but to him that's enough he believes what

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Jesus is capable of from the reports he's heard in fact his stellar character is not just a private matter as some elders of the jews lobby on behalf of this centurion verse three so when he heard about Jesus he sent elders of the jews to him pleading with him to come and heal his servant and when they came to Jesus they begged him earnestly saying that the one for whom he should do this was deserving for he loves our nation and he has built us a synagogue this is testament to the centurion's public character even the jewish community leaders earnestly vouch for him he is deserving not that anyone can deserve

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God's God's grace you can't earn God's grace but what these elders are proclaiming here is that this centurion is not like any other gentile he's special he's extraordinary this gentile is distinguished he cares about us not only in word but through action he built us a synagogue he built us a place of worship he cares about our well -being even though he's not one of us please come and see what you can do he is genuinely affectionate toward God's people please come heal his servant and this is a unique sight because normally jews and gentiles did not get along it was a judgment of God oftentimes in the old testament that a gentile nation conquers

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Israel it was a it was the ultimate judgment in the old testament when a gentile nation called

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Babylon took away the jews from Israel in exile they did not have the best of relationships and especially considering the fact that this is a roman centurion

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Rome was the occupying empire of the land of Israel at this time they were not in the friendliest terms in fact jews did not even eat with the gentile because that would make them unclean and this separation between jews and gentile has been really the case for since genesis 12 when