Luke
7:1-10
Now
when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into
Capernaum. 2 And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was
sick, and ready to die. 3 And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the
elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. 4
And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was
worthy for whom he should do this: 5 For he loveth our nation, and he hath built
us a synagogue. 6 Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from
the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not
thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof: 7
Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word,
and my servant shall be healed. 8 For I also am a man set under authority,
having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another,
Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
9 When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him
about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not
found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 10 And they that were sent, returning
to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.
Also in Matt 8:5-13. Read
both accounts and notice differences.
Matthew
8:5-13
5
And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion,
beseeching him, 6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy,
grievously tormented. 7 And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. 8
The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come
under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. 9 For I
am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go,
and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this,
and he doeth it. 10 When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that
followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in
Israel. 11 And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and
shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. 12
But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go
thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was
healed in the selfsame hour.
The main idea is faith, but
the miracle could also be outlined around the centurion.
There
are differences in the gospel accounts of this miracle.
Some think these are two different miracles.
But I think they refer to the same miracle because:
·
They are both about a Centurion and his slave.
·
They both follow the Sermon on the Mount
·
They both follow the discourse on calling Jesus Lord, Lord and not
doing what He says and building one’s house on the rock/sand.
· My first answer is that we should not feel obliged to give a full explanation where one does not exist. We are not to close our eyes to problems in the text, but faith allows us to live with apparent inconsistencies, knowing that God’s word is inerrant and infallible, and that our understanding of His word is neither of the above.
· Faith is not opposed to the facts, but it is not troubled when all the facts are not made known. Let us remember that the gospel writers were aware of the writings of others (cf. Luke 1:1-2), and yet they felt free to have differences in their accounts—not differences which made another biblical author in error, but perhaps differences which remind us that we have only partial accounts of any incident in the life of Christ.
1.
The main reason some think these are two different miracles is because
Matthew says that the Centurion himself went to see Jesus. Luke says that the
centurion sent subordinates. Did the centurion go himself or send others?
2.
It is passages like this that the critics hold up to show that the Bible
is full of mistakes. It is the epitome of arrogance for a man to come along and
say that the Bible is wrong.
3.
Through the years men have made many claims that the Bible is wrong.
Then, archaeologists come along and prove that the Bible is right after all.
4.
One of my favorite examples is that for years critics denied the truth of
Jonah, because Nineveh didn’t exist, but archaeologists discovered it about
100 years ago.
5.
So, we need to assume that the Bible is inerrant, and just ask, "For
now, until I know all the facts, what possible explanation is there for this
difference?"
6.
Who wrote Romans? Paul? or
Tertius? Paul was the author but someone else wrote it for him.
Good secretaries can write letters for their bosses that only need to be
signed. Are the letters from the
secretary or the boss?
7.
Nixon was not at the Watergate hotel.
Why was he impeached? Because
he was responsible.
8.
The answer to the differences between the two passages is -- The official
was a man in authority and he sent representatives, but it is the same thing as
him going as far as his faith is concerned.
9.
Matthew’s style is to give summations of the miracles.
For his purposes, it was easier, but still accurate, to just say it was
the centurion.
a.
Luke says, “When He had completed all His discourse…” In the
preceding passage (Luk 6:46) Jesus has just asked them, “Why do you call me
Lord, Lord, and then do not do what I say.”
b.
One issue that He is dealing with is not recognizing His authority.
Now we will have a miracle in which a Gentile recognizes Jesus’
authority.
1.
The Centurion believes in Jesus’ power.
He approaches Jesus through Jews.
2.
That was the proper way for a Gentile to come to God in OT economy.
Here is a Gentile who really understands and recognizes Jesus for who he
is.
3.
He also was very concerned for a servant and that was very untypical. His knowledge of God and love for God is shown by his love
for his fellow man.
4.
He was a generous man and had built a synagogue so that he could worship
the one true God with the Jews. He
couldn’t go into the temple, since he was a Gentile.
He
believed Christ’s words before He saw the works.
1.
Jesus is amazed at the man’s faith.
He doesn’t need to see the signs.
2.
This Gentile really does understand a lot, believes it and acts on it. This is an indictment against the Jewish nation which insists
on seeing signs as proof and then still doesn’t believe even after they see
the signs.
3.
Matthew includes Jesus’ comment about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob eating
with Gentiles in the kingdom (Matt 8:11). Luke leaves this out because he is
writing to a Gentile audience. There are a couple of things we can learn from
this:
·
This requires a literal future millennium.
·
There is a warning. Some Jews won’t be there.
· See Weeping and gnashing of teeth discussion: Appendix B.
·
Commendation of the Centurion’s recognition of Jesus as the
Messiah who has authority over disease.
·
Condemnation of Israel for rejecting Messiah and they are in
danger of losing their expected place in the kingdom of heaven.
What gets you in and keeps you out?
Accepting Jesus as the Messiah.
·
In Matt 8: there is a discussion about “the sons of the kingdom
being thrown out into the outer darkness.” This is a figure of speech. They
were not in and then thrown out. It
is like being beat out of a job. You
didn’t get the job and then lose it. You
never got it. Who are the sons of
the kingdom? They are Jews. This does not mean "Christians" or
"believers."
·
The centurion is a man with authority but also under authority,
and he submits to the authority of Christ.
That is what Jesus calls great faith.
His underlying character trait is humility.
·
If you don’t have faith, then what is your problem?
Pride. You think you can
earn God’s approval on your own. Israel refused to subject itself to the
Messiah. They were self-righteous.
·
Where is the healing? It
is back at the house and almost not a part of the miracle story.
It certainly doesn’t get center stage. The truth surrounding the
miracles is overwhelming. The
miracle is still important because it verifies the truth, but it is not what
gets the emphasis. In our day,
those who believe that tongues and healing are still happening put their
emphasis on the tongues and miracles. Those
who emphasize these gifts prove that they are not legitimate.
·
The man built their synagogue.
This man knew and applied the OT scriptures and recognized the Messiah
when he arrived.
·
Belief in the authority of God’s Word and the sovereignty of God
brings results.
·
Don’t be critical of a man because of his job. You wouldn’t
normally think that a Roman centurion would be a believer in the true God.
Jews didn’t usually think too much of centurions, but here’s one with
great faith.
·
True faith is demonstrated in a humble approach to God.
·
Rejection of God’s truth may bring replacement in God’s
service. The Jews rejected Christ
and were replaced - Rom 9-11.
·
A man is a good leader when he is a good follower. "I too am
a man under authority..."
·
Jesus doesn’t have to be present for the healing to take place.
·
I believe that this miracle, serves several purposes in the
developing message of Luke’s gospel.
·
First, this miracle testifies to the fact that Jesus is who He
claimed to be—Israel’s Messiah. No prophet had ever surpassed this miracle.
·
Second, this miracle is the backdrop for the questions of John the
Baptist, which are to be introduced in the following section.
·
Third, these miracles were the basis for the faith of men and
women.
·
Finally, these miracles are samples of the kind of faith, which we
should have today. Let us look back over these two miracles to discover the
characteristics of faith, which these to incidents teach us.
(1)
Faith honors and pleases God. If anything is clear in the story of
the centurion, it is that the faith of this man both pleased and honored God.
God delights in men’s faith. God is honored by faith when He is the object of
that faith. What greater compliment to the character of God than to have men
demonstrate that they have confidence in Him. Men find God trustworthy because
He is worthy of men’s trust. Faith honors God. Faith pleases God. Faith is
commended by God.
(2)
Faith focuses on God as its proper object.
The centurion did not trust in his (great) authority, but in Christ’s.
a.
The centurion believed that Christ was Lord of nature, which
He had authority to command sickness to depart. His faith was focused on the
right object.
b.
Too often, we focus our attention on our faith, rather than on
God, who is the object of our faith. The centurion was not guilty of such
self-consciousness. In fact, he did not mention his faith at all. It was Jesus
who pointed out the great faith of this man. The centurion had fixed his
attention of Jesus, on His compassion, His mercy, His power. The centurion was
preoccupied with the person of our Lord, not his possession of faith.
c.
To press this point a little further, some Christians lose the
focus of their faith by concentrating on the promises of God, rather than the
person of God. Promises are only as good as the person. Promises alone are
worthless. A healthy faith is a faith in the person, which then enables us to
believe the promises. And if our faith in the person of God is sufficient, we
hardly need promises, for we know that God is greater than those promises He has
given. The difference here is subtle, but important. It is the difference
between God as the gift and God as the giver. The centurion’s faith was
focused on God.
(3)
Faith anticipates and asks for great things from a great God. The
centurion not only asked our Lord for a miraculous healing—the boy was about
to die—but also for a healing that was out of the ordinary.
a.
The centurion asked Jesus to heal his servant “long
distance.” His God was so great that He need not be present to heal, and thus
he asked for Jesus merely to speak the word. Faith in a great God is evidenced
by requests that are out of the ordinary.
b.
How often my prayers and those of others I hear are merely
requests for the humanly possible. It is not that God cares little about colds,
sniffles, the flu, minor aches and pains, but lets face it folks, a little
aspirin, bed rest, and time usually solves these problems.
c.
The things which should require faith are those things which
are not humanly possible. Let us once again read through the New Testament,
looking at those things for which our Lord and His apostles prayed. Let our
prayer be a reflection of the greatness of our God.
(4)
Faith is always found in the vicinity of grace and mercy. The
centurion’s petition was a request for grace, and thus he totally rejected any
worthiness on his own part (although the Jewish elders thought he was worthy).
a.
The faith of the centurion was not only faith in the power of
our Lord, but in His character, specifically His mercy. He knew that Jesus was
not only able to heal from afar, but willing, because of the great suffering of
his servant.
b.
Faith cannot be divorced from mercy and grace. God’s gifts
to men are not the result of man’s worthiness, and not even the result of
man’s faith, but of God’s goodness and mercy. BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED
THROUGH FAITH (Eph. 2:8)
(5)
Faith does not require sight or visible evidence. So far as we know,
the centurion never saw Jesus.
a.
The centurion did not request Jesus’ presence, nor did he
feel it necessary for his servant to be healed. Faith is trusting in the person
of God, based upon the testimony of those who have seen him.
b.
So it was for the centurion and so it is for us. Our faith is
to be grounded in the testimony of the apostles. Faith does not require sight.
The centurion’s faith did not require Christ’s presence, nor rites, rituals
and magical formulas, only the spoken word of the Lord.
(6)
The faith which our Lord commends in the centurion is for the blessing of God on
others, rather than on one’s self. Notice the unselfish nature of
the centurion’s faith. He trusted God and asked our Lord for the healing of
his servant, not the blessing of his bank account, and so on.
a.
The “name it and claim it” folks always seem to dwell on
the selfish dimensions of faith. Have faith and God will heal you. Have faith
and God will make you rich and famous. Have faith and God will bless you.
b.
The faith of the centurion is vastly superior. It is focused
upon God and its application is toward others. May our faith be out-going,
rather than ingrown. Faith is a gift, like the other gifts, not to be used in a
self-indulgent sort of way, but to meet the needs of others.
(7)
Faith grows. Our Lord commends the faith of the centurion, but it
would be wrong to think that his faith was somehow instant faith.
a.
I believe that the faith of the centurion was a faith that was
nurtured, that grew over time. His faith was evidenced in the way he dealt with
the Jews, and especially in his generosity toward the building of their
synagogue.
b.
The centurion seemed to trust God to bless Gentiles through
the Jews. He invested his worldly goods in blessing Abraham’s seed. The faith
which we see commended by our Lord here is not the “first-fruits” of his
faith, so to speak, but the evidence of a growing, healthy faith.
c. I believe that faith must be exercised, if it is to grow. May God stretch and increase our faith. May our Lord