I'm actually going to start with a word of prayer though. Oh Lord, you are a good Father, and it does our souls well to remember that and to sing it. We ask now that through your Spirit you would help us to believe it, Lord, one of the greatest gifts you give us as a Father is your word. These scriptures that we read and that we preach, Lord, they contain your truth. They are inspired by your Spirit and they are meant to change us. They are meant to create faith in our hearts. They are meant to stir us up to works and good deeds. They are meant to form us more into the image of your Son, and we want all of those things this morning. So now would you be with us, Father? Would you send the Spirit of the risen Christ into the midst of your people in the preaching of your word? Lord, stir our affections for your Son Jesus this morning. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.
Well, we're picking up today in Luke chapter 7. We just finished the last couple of weeks looking at Luke's sermon on the plain. And so in that sermon on the plain, we saw Jesus from amidst all of His many disciples selecting the 12, right? The 12 that He then called apostles. So He selects out those 12 apostles and then He begins to instruct people on what it means to be a disciple. And He starts to teach about the ethics of the kingdom and we see the Beatitudes. And He goes through this really famous sermon and He lays out for the crowds and the disciples and the apostles a vision of the Kingdom that He's establishing. And so it's right after this sermon that we pick up today. And here in today's text, we encounter the famous Roman centurion.
So read along with me now in Luke 7. Hear God's holy and authoritative Word. 'After Jesus had finished all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum. Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death. Who was highly valued by him. And when the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews asking him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built our synagogue." And Jesus went with them. And when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I do not presume to come to you, but say the word and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority with soldiers under me, and I say to one, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes, and to my servant, do this, and he does it. And when Jesus had heard these things, He marveled at him. And turning to the crowd that followed Him, He said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well. The Word of the Lord. May He write His truth upon our hearts.
Now there are a lot of things that are striking about this famous episode in Jesus' ministry. But one of the things that Luke wants us to see is how unique the centurion himself is. He's intentionally drawing our gaze there.
Now by nature, a centurion is important. He's a powerful man. He's maybe the most powerful man in Capernaum. To be a centurion means that he commanded a century of Roman troops. On paper, 100, usually more like 60 to 80, but 60 to 80 Roman legionnaires were under his command in Capernaum policing, keeping in order the surrounding area. He's essentially a Roman military officer. And these centurions were really the backbone of the Roman army, of the Roman military. They maintained discipline in the troops. They were the ones who trained troops. And ready them for battle in the midst of a conflict. As the craziness and chaos of conflict was happening, it's the centurions who were called to hold the line and to give instruction and to make sure the general's wishes played out on the field. So this is an important individual. Another aspect of being a centurion meant you were never allowed to get married. The reason for that is these centurions were sent all over the Roman Empire. The duty of a centurion was a really high duty. They were sent to the corners of the empire for all sorts of tasks. They were called on to enforce the peace, sometimes to crush rebellions. Centurions will do that in about 40 years in Jerusalem, won't they? So they would be sent out to crush rebellions, sometimes even to conquer new territory, to go into places like Gaul. And conquer the barbarians and the Goths. And so because of that, they couldn't marry. They needed at a moment's notice to be able to go anywhere and have nothing holding them back. But because they couldn't marry, oftentimes they became very close with their servants. It wasn't uncommon for centurions to really understand their servants and those around them, sort of in their inner circle, essentially as a family. Unit. That servant often functioned like a squire, tending to his master's wounds after battle, helping him to prepare his armor before the next battle. And we don't know the exact nature and detail of this servant's duties, but it's really clear the centurion values him. The text says he values him. He has compassion for him. He holds him in high esteem. He cares about this man.
But also what Luke shows us, what makes this centurion unique is that he has incredibly high character. Now we never actually meet the man and Jesus doesn't meet him either. Instead, we have these Jewish elders from Capernaum that come out on the road and they meet Jesus to plead this man's case. And that's just incredibly unexpected. You wouldn't expect to see that. This Roman officer who's living in Palestine, who's living in Capernaum, really for the functional purpose of making sure the Jews remember, you are a conquered people. These soldiers are here to keep the order and make sure you remember that you Jewish people are under the heel of the emperor. That's why he's there. And so it's fascinating that the elders, the Jewish leaders of Capernaum, would be willing to go out and plead this man's case before Jesus. And it tells us they plead with Jesus earnestly. There's nothing about how they do it that makes it seem like they're begrudging about it or they're kind of doing it through clenched teeth. They seem to really want to gain favor for this man in front of Jesus.
6 · The pastor unpacks the elders' testimony: the centurion built the synagogue, is a God-fearer drawn to Jewish monotheism, and has demonstrated such extraordinary kindness that Jews are willing to testify publicly that he loves their nation
And so to do that, they start to highlight his character. And Luke draws our attention there at the start of the passage. This is a man of high character. He's well thought of even in the Jewish community. He's given significant money to the point they said that he has built their synagogue. He built their house of worship. He appears to be a God-fearer. A Gentile person, not a Jewish man obviously, but who in his encounter with the Jewish people with their monotheism, with the God of Abraham has become intrigued. And he sought to learn about this God. The elders go so far as to say as they kind of lay out the character of the centurion before Jesus as they plead the case, 'This is why you should come off your path and go to this guy's house. You should do it, Jesus, because he loves our nation.' Now that's a huge statement for these elders to make. First of all, it's huge because these are Jewish people claiming a Roman centurion loves the Jewish people. It's significant because for them to say it means that here's a Roman soldier whose loyalty is to the emperor, who has shown such kindness and such favor to the Jewish people of Capernaum and the surrounding area that they're willing to publicly admit this is a man who puts us first and who favors us.
7 · The pastor emphasizes that in an honor-shame culture, the elders' declaration that the centurion is 'worthy' is profound—especially contrasted with the scandal of Jesus visiting Levi—and that the centurion's compassion for his dying servant further demonstrates his exceptional character
The whole crux of the argument about his character, though, is boiled down when they say, 'He's worthy.' The man is worthy. In an honor and shame culture, like Jesus' world was, to be worthy is huge. It's significant. You think back a few chapters before, how did they act when Jesus went to Levi's house? When he went to the house of a tax collector? One who wasn't worthy. It created a scandal, right? And so here they are telling Jesus, come to the house of a Gentile. But this Gentile is worthy. He's worthy to have a Jewish teacher come to his home. His character is so high, and even an agent for the hated Roman military deserves to host Jesus. And Luke shows us also that his compassion for his servant underscores the kind of man he is. Even as a battle-hardened soldier, a man who's skilled in the Roman martial arts, who's probably killed men in battle. As far as just war theory goes, Rome didn't have much just cause for their wars. He has compassion on his servant. He goes out of his way to recruit Jewish emissaries, to use some of his political capital to send these men out to meet Jesus on the road so his servant, who's dying on his deathbed, can be cared for.
8 · The pastor signals he is moving from exposition to illustration by invoking Oskar Schindler as a parallel to the centurion
As I was preparing, it reminded me of, of the man Oskar Schindler.
9 · The pastor tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a German war profiteer who transformed into a rescuer, spending all his wealth to save Jewish people from the Nazis, using his influence with SS officers and concentration camp authorities
You know him by the name of the movie Schindler's List that tells his story. It's based on a book called Schindler's Ark. It's that famous Steven Spielberg movie from the '90s. The story of Oskar Schindler is the story of this German industrialist, right? As the movie starts, we meet him and we encounter him, and he's a womanizer, he's a philanderer, he's a war profiteer. He comes to Krakow, Poland with the purpose and the intention of making millions and millions and millions of dollars off the fact that with a war raging, goods need to be produced, and now he had cheap Jewish slave labor to produce it at massive profits. And that's who Schindler is, that's how he starts out in the movie. But as the atrocities unfold, he realizes more is at stake. If you fast forward to the end, a transformation happens to this man, and he begins to see all of these Jewish people that he's enslaved, there's no other term for it, and been using to make himself into a millionaire, and he realizes he's the only one standing between these Jewish people and certain death. And so at immense risk to himself, he utilizes the friendships and the favor he's curried with Roman officials and the SS officers that run the local concentration camp and work camps, and he maneuvers his way to then take the millions that he's earned the millions he saved up over the course of the war, and to spend literally all of it to save these Jewish people, to buy them from the death camps like Auschwitz. It's an incredibly telling story.
10 · The pastor continues the Schindler illustration, emphasizing the moment Itzhak Stern calls the list 'an absolute good,' and how the Jewish people declared Schindler righteous despite his past, giving him a ring made from gold teeth as a sign of his worthiness before American authorities
There's a point in it, one of the other main characters is his accountant. Itzhak Stern is the guy's name, played by Ian Kingsley. Itzhak Stern is actually the only one who actually has good business sense. Schindler, for all his millions, really isn't good at business. But he uses this Jewish man to make profit. Well, as they're compiling the list, he keeps telling Stern, 'More, more, get me more.' He's literally spending every penny he's earned to compile this list. When it's done, there's this really compelling moment in the movie when he holds up the list. You remember that? And he looks at Schindler, he says, 'This list is an absolute good. This list is life, and all around its margins lie the gulf.' The Jewish people, in recognition of what Oskar Schindler had done, declared him a righteous man. There's a monument to him now in the nation of Israel. The Schindlerjuden is what they were eventually called, the Schindler Jews who were saved by Oskar Schindler. Some of them removed gold teeth to make a ring after the war was over to give him to put on his finger as a sign that he shouldn't be held guilty for the profiteering he did but should be spared by the American authorities.
11 · The pastor draws the parallel between the Jewish elders pleading the centurion's worthiness and Schindler being declared righteous, then pivots sharply: the elders think merit earns intervention, but in God's kingdom, that's not how grace operates
That, in essence, is what these Jewish elders are doing regarding the centurion. They're coming out to Jesus and they're pleading this man's case. They're coming to Jesus and saying, 'This man,' like Oskar Schindler, 'this centurion, he's worthy. He's a righteous man. He has merited Your intervention.' in his life, Jesus. And they carefully explain to Jesus that this Roman has earned his worth. The only problem is in the Kingdom, that's not how it works.
12 · The pastor contrasts the elders' emphasis on the centurion's worthiness with the centurion's own confession of unworthiness, showing that the centurion, unlike the elders, understands he needs grace rather than merit
The centurion of all people actually seems to understand this more than the Jewish elders do. Even though the Jewish elders have declared him as this laudable friend of Israel, he's a lover of our nation, Read verse 6. The centurion implicitly recognizes that he needs grace. The elders hold up his character. Centurion holds up his need for mercy. 'And Jesus went with them. And when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent his friends, saying to Him, "Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy."' to have you under my roof. Therefore, I do not presume to even come to you.
13 · The pastor points out the dramatic irony: the Jewish elders risk their reputation to declare the centurion worthy, only for the centurion himself to immediately declare his unworthiness, seemingly undoing their entire argument
Now, that has to be devastating for the Jewish elders to hear, right? They've just gone out at risk to themselves, at risk to their reputation, and they're pleading the case of a Roman soldier. They deliver the message to Jesus, and then the centurion's friends come. The way it's structured, they're probably Gentile friends. They're not other Jews. These Gentiles come and do they realize what they're doing? They just screwed the whole thing up. You can't tell Jesus He's not worthy. He's not going to come. He can't be unclean by going to an unworthy Gentile's house. Now, the snapshot of the conversation we get in Luke's Gospel really belies that there's more going on in the scene as it unfolds. It's a remarkable thing. But the centurion sends his friends to tell Jesus, 'I'm not worthy.'
14 · The pastor asserts the theological core of the passage: the right to come before God cannot be earned through works—no amount of good deeds makes anyone worthy—and everyone must come as a beggar appealing to grace, just as the centurion did
Somehow this man who's living on the margins of Jewish society, living on the margins of Judaism, he's discerned what has escaped the elders. The right to come before God isn't merited. There was nothing he could show. He could build 1,000 synagogues and he still wouldn't be worthy to host Jesus. The centurion doesn't try to show that he's earned anything. Instead, he recognizes, 'I'm not worthy,' and he appeals to grace. And like the centurion, to see Jesus, every one of us has to be a beggar of grace.
15 · The pastor highlights the centurion's remarkable humility: despite commanding troops and possessing worldly power and authority, he recognizes none of his accomplishments will impress Jesus or make him worthy
It's one of the most amazing things about the man is he has this inherent humility. By the world's standards, he's impressive. He has a mini army in Capernaum. He's got 80 to 100 armed Roman soldiers. The guy can do what he pleases. He has power. He's already confessed his authority to Jesus. I do it and it gets done. No one questions it. Yet here's this humility recognizing there's nothing he can do that will impress Jesus.
16 · The pastor applies the passage directly to contemporary worship: Christians often fall into resume-building before God—either feeling worthy because of good works or unworthy because of failure—but both approaches reveal a fundamental misunderstanding that grace cannot be earned or merited
And so often I think that can be the case for us. We try and do the opposite, don't we? We can be tempted to resume build before God. We come to God in prayer. We come to God in need of something. And we do what the Jewish elders did. In our mind, we start to build up the reasons why we're worthy. The reasons why we're deserving. We do everything we can to prove to Jesus we're worthy of His intervention. We're worthy of His love. You could do it in worship sometimes, right? On the positive and the negative. On the positive, you're thinking of how well the week went. Maybe you had a great morning. Maybe you spent extra time in the Word before you came to church. These are good things. But then in worship, that's the reason why you feel joyful and rightful to stand in the midst of the congregation and sing songs. You're resume building? Or on the flip side, you're standing in worship and you don't feel worthy to sing the songs. Because you're mindful of failure and things you haven't done. Isn't that just an indication that the way you do the math of your life is to build up worthiness to come before the Lord? But our algebra is wrong. The elder's algebra is wrong. You can't merit forgiveness. You can't earn grace.
17 · The pastor clarifies that the Jewish elders aren't villains but simply miss the point: Jesus isn't seeking the morally perfect or worthy, but beggars—prodigals, prostitutes, lepers, even enemy soldiers—who recognize their need for grace and find it through faith in Jesus
Luke is actually really fair to the Jewish elders. He doesn't paint them as these horrible antagonists in the scene. These aren't opponents of Jesus like we'll sometimes see of the Pharisees and the scribes. That's not how he shows these people. They come on behalf of a Gentile. They're hoping that Jesus will heal the servant. But still Luke shows us they don't see Jesus clearly enough. Jesus isn't looking for worthy religious leaders. He's not seeking perfect Torah keepers, people who have obeyed impeccably all of their life, because he knows he would never find a single one. Jesus has come for beggars. Luke is showing us Jesus has come for prodigals and for prostitutes, for lepers, and even for enemy combatants. He's come for anyone aware of their need for grace and aware that in Jesus, God offers the very mercy and forgiveness they're so desperate for. And that grace, Luke shows us, comes through faith.
18 · The pastor signals a shift from the theology of grace to the specific nature of the centurion's faith, which is the passage's climactic focus
We see the centurion's faith. It's the famous part of the passage, right? It's how you know the guy.
19 · The pastor re-reads the passage focusing on Jesus' amazement at the centurion's faith—the true climax—explaining that Jesus marvels (Greek: thaumazo) at the depth of trust from a man he's never met, contrasting it with his marvel at Nazareth's unbelief
Read with me again in verse 6. The centurion sent his friend saying to him, Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you under my roof. Therefore, I don't presume to come to you, But say the word and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority with soldiers under me. And I say to one, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes, and to my servant, do this, and he does it. And when Jesus had heard these things, he marveled at him. And turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. That's the climax of the passage. It's not the servant getting healed. That's almost an afterthought. Oh, and then when they got there, the guy was healed. He was no longer dying. The climax is Jesus marveling at what this man who's never met him has just uttered about who Jesus is and the authority of what he can accomplish. In both accounts of this passage, in Luke's Gospel here and in Matthew's Gospel, We read the same Greek word, thaumazo, to marvel, to be amazed. Jesus is astonished. He's blown away at what He hears. You can almost picture everyone stopping, looking at the friends after they deliver the message, and Jesus just kind of giving them a look and slowly a smile spreading across His face. He's never met the man, and yet his belief in Jesus' ability to heal his servant— he implicitly trusts. He trusts that Jesus will be gracious to an undeserving Roman soldier. And Jesus is stunned by it. The faith of a man who's never met him, that he will extend that kind of mercy. The only other time that Jesus marvels like this in regards to faith is back in Nazareth, His hometown, where He marvels at their lack of faith. He's stunned by what He's seen.
20 · The pastor signals a structural shift into a series of points examining the characteristics of the centurion's faith that caused Jesus to marvel
So what makes Jesus marvel at faith like this? What do we learn from the centurion's faith in this passage? I think there's several things.
21 · The pastor counters the misconception that faith is irrational, arguing that biblical faith is grounded in evidence
The first thing we see is that his faith is rational. And I want to start here very strategically. All too often you'll hear Christians speak about faith as if it's something that's not rational. There's no reason to believe these things. We just take them by faith. But that's not true and that's not biblical. Faith believes that impossible things for men are possible with God. Yes, it believes in healings that defy natural medical explanation. It believes that the supernatural is possible, that the dead can be raised, but it doesn't believe those things in an irrational way. It believes them because there's evidence that supports it. The centurion has reasons to believe. There's evidence undergirding this incredible trust he has in Jesus's otherworldly power. He's heard the reports. It tells us in the text he's heard what Jesus was doing. Stories about His teaching and the authority with which He taught. He's probably heard about these parables, this recent sermon on the plain. He's heard about His wisdom and the crowds that are flocking. And clearly, he's heard about the accounts of Jesus' ability to heal people. And so the centurion is being a good military officer, right? He's gathered his intelligence. He's done his due diligence, and based on the intelligence, he's making a rational decision to put his trust in Jesus. Based on everything he's heard and gathered, he takes a step of faith. God doesn't ask people to turn off their brains in order to have faith. He calls us to investigate, just like Theophilus. Luke is writing this gospel in the book of Acts to Theophilus. He's giving him an orderly account so you can know and realize that putting your life on the line behind Jesus, believing in Jesus, and maybe losing everything is worth it. It's not irrational. If the things written in this gospel and in this book are true, then it makes perfect sense. In light of the evidence, we're called to entrust ourselves to the saving power of Jesus, not in spite of evidence.
22 · The pastor explains that even rational faith requires risk and vulnerability
Second, we see that faith is risky. Simply because there's evidence doesn't mean that faith won't require us to step out. Just because something's rational doesn't mean it can't also make you vulnerable. The centurion's reputation is at stake here. First, he humbles himself to send a delegation of Jews to plead his case. These are the people that he controls, has authority over, and ostensibly rules as a centurion in the city. And he sends those people to plead his case. It's sort of a message that admits he has no right or status to come to Jesus face to face. Now, when you're commanding troops in a hostile area, the last thing you can afford is to look weak or look vulnerable. What happens to the centurion if this guy Jesus, who massive crowds are flocking to, rejects his emissaries? Or refuses to respond and heed the call? What will these crowds do? The centurion doesn't have an answer to that, and yet in faith he's willing to make himself vulnerable. He still seeks Jesus.
23 · The pastor draws on biblical examples—David and Goliath, Hebrews 11, and Jesus' promise in Matthew 19—to show that Scripture is filled with people who risked greatly in faith, trusting God's promises despite vulnerability and loss
Scripture is filled with stories of men and women who risked great things on account of their faith. They do great things for God for the sake of the Gospel, thinking it's possible, believing it's possible because God has promised them it's so. You can just go through Scriptures and you find them. Every little kid in children's church knows the story of David and Goliath, right? The best part of the story though is as David stands before Goliath, And he's not confident in his skill with the slingshot. He's confident in the Lord his God. The hall of faith in Hebrews 11 is person after person who makes themselves vulnerable by faith in God's promises. And Jesus promises us in Matthew 19:28, truly I say to you, in the new world When the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my name's sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. There's all sorts of vulnerability in that. Leaving family, losing family, risking reputation, being hated for what you believe and the person you believe in, but risking it in faith that when Christ returns, you'll receive it all back.
24 · The pastor tells the story of Adoniram Judson, imprisoned in brutal conditions in Burma, who when mocked about his missionary prospects replied, 'The prospects are as bright as the promises of God'—exemplifying faith that risks everything because it trusts God's faithfulness
There's an awesome story about the missionary Adoniram Judson. It's a compelling story. I encourage you to read more about him. But he went as a missionary, one of the first sort of pioneering missionaries to a place called Burma. And through his efforts to bring the Gospel to that country, he was eventually imprisoned. And when they threw him in prison, they actually chained him to a bamboo post and they put irons and chains on his ankles that weighed 32 pounds. Essentially to try and make it almost impossible for him to even move around within the cell. And he was just in these filthy conditions, more or less starving. And while he's there, there's a fellow prisoner who knew what he was doing. And this prisoner who he was sharing the cell with mocked him at one point and sneered at him. 'So Dr. Judson, what about the prospect of the conversion of the heathen?' And Judson's instant reply was, 'The prospects are as bright as the promises of God.' That's faith willing to risk immense things, not because it's irrational, but because it believes in the veracity, in the authority, in the power, in the faithfulness of God to His Word.
25 · The pastor establishes that faith renders all people equal before God
We also see that faith is inclusive. The third thing we see is that faith is inclusive. One of the major points of this passage is that faith, it renders all men equal before God. Jesus is stunned. He's amazed. He's almost knocked off His feet by the faith of a Gentile. He looks at a Gentile. He says of a Gentile, 'This man's faith is greater than all the faith of Israel.' That's a scandalous thing to say. The person who's not a child of Abraham has greater faith than all the heirs of Abraham according to the flesh. And when He heals the servant, it's an implicit endorsement that the faith of the centurion has brought salvation to his home. It starts Luke's chain of centurions. Luke loves to highlight the faith of Roman centurions. Have you ever noticed that? This is the first of 3 episodes where Luke uses one of these despised Roman soldiers to show amazing faith. Here we see it in this famous Gentile. 'I'm a man under authority and I have authority. You have authority, Jesus. Say it and it will happen.' And Jesus is amazed at his faith. You fast forward to the crucifixion. Who gives the testimony, truly, surely, this is the Son of God? It's the Roman centurion standing at the foot of the cross, right? And you fast forward to Acts chapter 10. The gospel breaking forth amongst the Gentiles, the gospel hitting the shore as it goes to the nations with Cornelius. And how is Cornelius described? He's a centurion. Luke is foreshadowing for us here. Faith is inherently inclusive. He's foreshadowing for us what Paul will make explicit in Galatians 3:26, that by faith anyone can come to God. It doesn't matter what your tribe is, who your mom is, who your dad is, what your occupation is. Anyone can come.
26 · The pastor reads Galatians 3:26-29 and applies it forcefully: what you were before faith is irrelevant—whether pastor's kid or pagan, legalist or homosexual, greedy or poor, racist or abortionist
Galatians 3:26, 'For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God.' How? Through faith. 'For as many of you as were baptized into Christ Jesus have put on Christ. Therefore there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.' And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. What you were before faith, Luke is showing us, is irrelevant. When you approach God in repentance and faith, two sides of the same coin, there is a way to Jesus. People who come to Jesus in repentance and faith are welcome there, whether they're pastor's kids or they're pagan kids, whether they are lifelong legalists or lifelong homosexuals, for the greedy and for the poor, for the racist and for the abortionist, for the suburbanite and the urbanite. It doesn't matter where you are, who you are, where you're from. When you come to Jesus, when you encounter the grace of God in Christ, It can make anyone new. And when someone comes to Jesus on those terms, repenting of who they were and implicitly placing faith in Him for their future, He makes them a child of the King. That's the good news of the gospel. Anyone.
27 · The pastor references 1 Corinthians 6, where Paul lists those who will not inherit the kingdom, then declares, 'And such were some of you, but you were washed,' emphasizing that faith in Christ cleanses anyone from their past
Paul says in 1 Corinthians, he gives this whole litany of people who will not inherit eternal life, will not inherit the kingdom. And it's a whole slew of people. It's greedy people. It's the sexually immoral. It's all these things. And then he says those beautiful words, 'And such were some of you, but you were washed. You were cleansed because you believed in Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins.'
28 · The pastor establishes a critical theological distinction: faith always takes an object, and the centurion is not saved by his faith but by Jesus through his faith
Finally, faith takes an object. Faith is always fundamentally faith in something. Faith never stands on its own. It's something that it will never do. You can have faith in science, you can have faith in the economy, faith in democracy or a political system. The point is, faith always has an object, something it's trusting in. That's the nature of the word. So what does that mean? Well, it means that the centurion isn't saved by his faith. He's saved by Jesus through his faith. And that's a significant distinction. Asked another way, what brings about the healing of his servant? A cursory reading of the text, you might be tempted to say the centurion's faith is what brings about the healing. But that's not correct. Jesus is the one who heals the servant, isn't he? He brings that healing in response to the soldier's faith. But Jesus is the one who takes the man off of his deathbed and gives him a new lease on life. Jesus is the only one who has authority to do that. Jesus is the only one who has authority to forgive sins.
29 · The pastor emphasizes that the centurion's faith was specifically in Jesus' unique authority, not in some generic power
A centurion doesn't send out his emissary to just some random Jew on the road. Hey, find a Jewish guy who looks like he's got people around him and ask him if he can heal my buddy. No. It would be foolish. It would be irrational. There would be no reason to do it. That's not what he does at all. He sends out the elders to meet Jesus. His confidence in the healing is placed in Jesus. His faith is directed toward the reality that Jesus and only Jesus has authority Say the word, Jesus, and my servant will live. I have authority over men. You, Jesus, who I've never met, I know that You, I trust in You, You have authority even over sickness and death. That's amazing faith. You don't need to come and diagnose this, Jesus. You don't need to lay hands on this, Jesus. I believe that You can say it. And it will happen. And that is so compelling for us this morning because you know what's going on there? The centurion has never ever seen Jesus and neither have any of us. We didn't get to walk with Jesus and be personally discipled by Jesus like Peter and John. We didn't get to witness the healings firsthand. We didn't get to see the Transfiguration. You get to behold His glory before you, and I've got faith in something right there. I've seen it. Paul gets the Damascus Road experience, right? But we're like the centurion. We've heard the reports. We've heard the testimonies of the Word of God regarding the Word of God. And so like this Roman soldier, if we put our faith in Jesus, if we believe in Him and we rest in Him, if we come before the Father for forgiveness and salvation and healing us from our brokenness for eternal life in the name of Jesus, pleading for all of His merits to be credited to us, just like this centurion, the Father will be merciful.
30 · The pastor applies the passage directly: Christians are tempted to put faith in doctrines, religious duties, correct theology, or emotional experiences as the basis of assurance, but the centurion shows us faith must be in Jesus himself, not in substitutes
That's so crucial. Because how often do we start to put our faith in doctrines, put our faith in religious duties, put our faith in right theology? I'm going to heaven because I say the right things, and I know the right creeds. We put our faith in religious experiences. That's where my assurance comes from. I got the warm fuzzies a couple weeks ago in worship, and so now I think I'm going to heaven more than I did the week before when I didn't have the warm fuzzies. No, Luke shows us, the centurion shows us, you have to put your faith in Jesus.
31 · The pastor concludes by citing Spurgeon: our faith is not in doctrines or practices but in a person—Jesus Christ
Conclude with this quote by Charles Spurgeon: Our faith is a person. The gospel that we have to preach is a person. And go wherever we may, we have something solid and tangible to preach, for our gospel is a person. If you had asked the 12 apostles in their day, what do you believe in? They would not have stopped to go round with a long sermon, but they would have pointed to their Master and they would have said, 'We believe Him.' 'But what are your doctrines?' 'There. There they stand incarnate.' 'But what is your practice?' 'There. There stands our practice. He is our example.' 'What then do you believe?' Hear the glorious answer of the Apostle Paul. We preach Christ crucified. Our creed, our body of divinity, our whole theology is summed up in the person of Christ Jesus. In what do you believe?
32 · The pastor closes in prayer, asking God to help the congregation fix their eyes on Jesus, confessing the temptation to fall back into merit-based thinking, and thanking God that when He looks at believers, He sees Jesus
Would you bow your heads? Lord, we want to look to Jesus. We want to fix our eyes on your Son, the author and the perfecter of our faith. And Lord, we confess that there are so many times when we need help to do that. We are so easily distracted. It's so easy to fall back into the old math of thinking that we can earn our worth before You. But Lord, we want Your promises to ring true. We want Your Word to ring true. We want the inspired testimony of the centurion to shape our perspective this morning. Father, help us by your spirit to look at Jesus, to see Jesus, to trust in Jesus, to love Jesus, and to rest in Jesus. And Father, thank you that when you look at us, You see Jesus. It's in His name that we pray. Amen.