Luke 7:1-10

This morning, let me invite you to turn with me to the book of Luke, this time, Chapter 7. Book of Luke, Chapter 7. I want to read the first 10 verses of this chapter with you this morning. Luke, Chapter 7, verses 1 through 10. Now, when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Copernian. And a certain centurian servant who was dear to him was sick and ready to dawn. 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. And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly saying that he was worthy for whom he should do this. For he loveth our nation and hath built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with them. When he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself. Try I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof. Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee. But say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man 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. When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turned about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. They that were sent returning to the house. found the servant whole that had been sick. May God bless to us, he is sacred and holy word this morning. After our Lord preached his sermon on the plane, he returned and he entered into Copernium, according to verse 1. Now, you’ll recall that Copernian was sort of like the same. center of his operations. He also often stayed there and remained there for periods of time in different residences. A lot of times at Peter’s house who had residence there. Judah and Galilee were presently under Roman rule. The Romans had the Romans had the power, the authority over them. And so we should not be surprised to find that there would be a centurion in various cities there in Galilee. And Copernium had one, at least one, who was there, lodging there, and had evidently a garrison of troops. It was a way of keeping everybody subdued and keeping them under their authority. So there were Roman soldiers stationed. in various parts of Israel. And here we see, evidently, some perhaps here at Pernian. And so it wouldn’t be an unusual thing. Now, the word centurion signifies someone who has at least 100 men under him. I don’t know if they were strict about that, but was sort of like a captain in our own army. A small or a leader, but still a good number of men would be under his authority. Now, what is surprising about this man, this Roman century, is that he believes on Jesus Christ. As verse 9 tells us here, Jesus indicates, in all of Israel, he hasn’t found faith like this man has. So evidently, this man believed on Christ. You don’t know exactly how he heard about Christ. Maybe you heard John the Baptist? I don’t know. Maybe someone witnessed to him. But he heard about Christ and he has faith in Christ. And here, he seeks Christ help because he knows that Christ has gone about all the land, healing various people. He’s been hearing about the healings, and he knows something about Jesus Christ. And I thought this centurion is much. we look at him, provides for us an example of various Christian graces, such as humility, kindness, and faith. Now, I thought we would look at this passage of scripture with that in mind. So let me begin by saying this. You find an example of kindness in this centurion. We find that in verses two. through five. And a certain centurion servant who was dear on him was sick and ready to die. 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. And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly saying that he was worthy for whom he should do this. For he loveth our nation and build us a synagogue. You see here, as you look at this centurion, a life that is punctuated by kindness. Now, this centurion was extremely concerned about a servant that he had, who was dear to him, who was very sick in his verse two indicates was near death. This was not just a minor illness. This was life or death. Whether he got to help or not. This man here was going to die. This matter was very serious. And so his master cherished this man, highly valued him, and we see the great interest he takes in his welfare. Now, he is doing everything he can, that this young, or this servant of his might be healed. He was a kind master, and he tries to do what he can so that this man is restored to help. It’s commendable that he chose the very best means possible. He appeals to Christ. He sins for Christ. He had heard of Christ. He knew something about his ability to work miracle healings. He was informed of his presence in the city. We’ve already talked about. He had faith in Christ. So therefore, he is. pretty sure that Christ can heal his servant. He appealed evidently to the elders of the Jews that they would go to Christ. He himself doesn’t go. I don’t know if this was because of his concern as a Gentile or not, but he, in his treatment of his servant, he shows kindness because he wants to to get him help any way he can. And he cares about this lowly servant in his household. In addition to this, when the Jews come to Jesus, they reveal something else about this name. And that is that he had positive feelings here toward the Jewish people. Now, normally, a foreign military leader ruling, over a conquered people like Israel, that kind of individual does not have much compassion. They rule pretty much with an iron fist over these people. And they have a callous disregard for their welfare. But that isn’t the case with a century. We find here he has a duty to keep these Jews in subjection, but he didn’t despise the Jews, as Gentiles often did, and certainly those who had conquered them normally would. The elders of the Jews bore strong testimony to do this. He loves our nation. Perhaps that has something to do with him, believe, that he would love the scriptures, therefore, perhaps even in the worship. Maybe that’s why he built the synagogue. Maybe he built a synagogue so that he could be there to worship. I don’t know all the details. were not told. But the fact that he built a synagogue used perhaps his own wealth or its own finances or used his men to build this, I think it’s pretty amazing that he did this. And certainly that is something that is something that would show that he had true interest in the worship of God, at least there at Copernian, what he could do when he was helping. Now, these things show the kindness, the compassion, the interest this man had in the Jewish people that he was working among. And it shows the character of this centurion overall. So you see a life punctuated by kindness. Now, how is it possible to have kindness to be a major feature of your life? He was there. There is one who was representing a foreign power, which often treated the Jews rather coolly and ruthlessly, and yet the elders of the Jews highly commended. They have a high regard for his character. How do you account for this? For one, it was a heathen, for one who was a gentown, a stern soldier by profession. How does he end up with this spirit of kindness. Well, I can tell you this, he wasn’t born with it, nor would it be encouraged by the Roman Emperor and the leadership of Rome. But there is one thing to account for it. This man has been touched by the grace of God. He possesses faith in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has opened his eyes and put within him a new heart. It is a renewed person. There were Gentiles who were converted while Jesus spent much of his time working among the Jews. And here’s one of them. Kindness is an attribute of God. In fact, we might say that it is one that is a what they call transferable. It’s one of the things we can have as well. There are certain things we can’t be omnipit, but we can have kindness. Thou are to God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. Eamaya 9.17. God’s people bear something of the spiritual image of their Lord. He has stamped upon us and worked in us, a fruit of the Spirit. And we know from Galasians 522 and Soph 23, kindness is put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercy’s kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness long suffering, Colossians, chapter 2 and verse 12. As Peter says, add to godliness, brotherly kindness in 2 Peter 1.7. Now it’s true that this centurion perhaps did not have a perfect understanding of spiritual things. He had limited knowledge of the Messiah from his grasp of scripture, but he believed. He knew something. He was trusting in Christ. is the Messiah. And because of the spiritual illumination, because of the presence of the spirit in his life, he has this grace of kindness. His faith isn’t superficial. He has evidence of it. A life of kindness. So how is it possible to have kindness to be a major feature of your life? You need to be converted. You need to have the spirit of God within you. Now you should follow. the centurians example. Kindness should dominate us who have been touched by the grace of God. We should show kindness to everyone to whom we have dealings. This takes an interest and a concern in other people. We should strive to keep our eyes open to spot an occasion and help others, to be ready to do good. unto others. To learn to weep with those who weep and to mourn with those who mourn. This is a good way to promote the Christian faith before others when we do acts of kindness for those who are around us. We give tangible evidence that we are different from the other people of the world. You remember when in the Old Testament, poverty-stricken Ruth, the Moabitis, goes out to glean that her mother-in-law and herself may have something to eat, and she happens to end up in the field of Boaz. And when Boaz sees her gleaning behind his reapers, he immediately inquired, a buyer who is this woman? And he speaks kindly to her. In fact, he says to her, go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my handmaids. Just keep working with my mates. Who knows? If you go somewhere else, who knows how you’ll be treated? Sometimes people weren’t too happy to have leaners in their field. They may treat them cool. They may treat them cool. They may be, you know, thrust them off their land or something. Boaz even charges his men not to touch her. Do not treat her partially. And you remember, he says, when you’re thirsty, when my men pull water or drink, you know, draw water for everyone to drink, you come up and get water too. And when they ate the lunch that was prepared for them, she was given a portion of that lunch to eat, as well. And then amazingly, Boas tells his reapers, hey, leave a little, leave some handfuls behind so that she gets enough. People who glean, these people are pretty thorough when they get all the grain and so forth. And so you wouldn’t, you know, if you get a little bit, you have, may even have to work, you know, hunt for a while, get even a little bit, so if you get a little bit, that’s great. So he’s saying, leave a whole hand for me on. You know, make sure that she has enough. This is kindness in action, you see. This is the kind of kindness we can show. We can display in our lives. Like the Centurion, you two should have a love for the people of God, for divine worship, for your neighbor. So you find an example of kindness in this centurion. The second thing we see here, is you find an example of humility in this century. Did you look at verses six and seven with me? Then Jesus went with them, and when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent frangstein, saying on him, Lord, trouble not thyself, for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof. Wherefore neither thought I myself, worthy to come under the one of the ways in which humility expresses itself is confessing that you are not worthy of any favor of the Lord. Notice the contrasts here in our text. The elders of the Jews come to Jesus, and they say, Jesus. He’s worthy. You ought to do this for him because he loves our nation. He’s built the synagogue. Look at all the good works he’s done. He’s worthy of your favor. You ought to heal a servant. But he himself, when he deals with, I’m not worthy to come under me. I’m not worthy for you to him come into my house. What a difference that is. Now, this self-abasement, I don’t think, was just. because he was a Gentile and Jesus was a Jew. That may have contributed to it, but I think rather, it was because he had a deep insight into his own soul, the depravity of his own heart and his own sinfulness. And he saw Jesus as the Messiah. And he himself as an unworthy. He said, sinned. He knew he had no merit to entitle to him to any favor from Christ. Reminds me of Jacob and what he said in Genesis 3210, I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies and of the truth which thou hast shown unto thy servant. I am not worthy of these things. John the Baptist tells us, he that cometh after me is mightier than I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear, even carry. That shows these men. Some find it difficult to understand if you ever read some of Bunyan’s works. He used such appreciating language. concerning himself. Now it’s true that when he was a tinker, he was, you know, one of the foremost swears and cursors there was in the land. But the truth is, Bunyan saw the utter depravity of his own heart. And it’s this spiritual knowledge that comes by the work of the Holy Spirit, which produces humility in us. Friends, do you see yourself as unworthy of even the least favor of Jesus Christ? Or are you thinking as the Jews are thinking? I’m worthy of God, Christ, to do something for me because I do all these things for him. That’s not the spirit work. That’s not the spirit’s work to do that. The truth is, you and I are much more sinful than we really think we are, and much more unworthy. then we know ourselves to be. We cannot come and appeal to Christ on the basis of our worthiness. We have to come confessing our unworthiness. That it would be grace to us for him to help us in our trials, our struggles, whatever the case may be. You must always throw yourself on Christ’s mercy. Not just when you’re, coming to faith in Christ, you’re seeking him out for salvation, appealing to his grace. But even afterwards, we’re always in need of one grace upon another, as John puts it. So humility expresses itself in self and confessing, you’re not worthy of any favor from the Lord. Humility is evidence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. Humility is not a natural trait. I’m not born with this characteristic, any more than you’re born with kindness. In fact, fallen sinners are born proud, arrogant, rebellious, and false. You naturally have a high opinion of yourself. God declares that the mind of the rebellious Jews in the Old Testament, and Isaiah, 65, 5, they would say to other people, stand by thyself, come not near me, for I am holy, then. You remember the publican and the Pharisee? They’re both up with the temperament praying. How is the publican pray? God, I thank you that I’m not as other men are. Those wicked sinners. I’m certainly not like this publican over here. Humility is a meek. It is a quiet spirit. In lowliness of mind, Paul says, esteeming others better than ourselves in Philippians 2.3. Any good you do, any graces you possess, you attribute to God working in you. By the grace of God, I am what I am, Paul said in first Corinthians four, even as the true worship of God, you consider yourself, as Paul says, the least of the less than the least of all the saints and the chief of sinners. It’s the Holy Spirit that changes a proud person into a humble one. Humility is a grace that is granted by the Spirit because he convinces you of sin. He unveils all. the vows and the corruption within you. He puts you in your rightful place in a submissive spirit. And he makes you lowly and heart and self-abase. This is a fundamental work of the Holy Spirit in your soul. Until you have a right view of God, until if you have a right view of yourself, you can never be home. never be hungry. All believers ought to strive to be clothed with humility. We read that in 1. Peter 5.5. God is provoked by the proud, be clothed with humility for God resists of the proud. Or as he says in Proverbs 334, God grants grace to the humble. He that he giveth grace to the holy. God provides the judge. direction, instruction for those who are humble enough to seek him. The Bible says the meek will he guide in judgment. The meek will he teach his way. God rewards the humble before honor is humility. Yea, by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor in life. Proverbs 1618. Humility is something that we constantly need granted to us. You never reach that point in life where I am not a humble person. You ever try to pick up a wet watermelon sea? It’s sort of slimy. It is slides right out of your green. If you ever get at the point, you think, I am now humble. Well, it’s like pick up the water, as soon as you, the watermelon sea, as soon as you touch, it goes slide right out of your hand, you lose your humility. As soon as you would say, I’m not humble. It’s a proud acknowledgement of you’re not humble. you lost it. I wonder if you’ve ever claimed in your prayers, in your appeals of the Lord, I’m not worthy. Do this for me out of grace. That’s what the centurion isn’t really requesting here. So you find an example of humility in the century. Last of all, you find an example of faith in the centurion. Let’s look at the last part of verse seven through. hand. But say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I am, I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say to one, under one, go, and he goeth, and do another, come and he cometh, and to my servant, do this, and he doeth it. Well, Jesus heard these things. He marvelled at it and turned him about and set under the people that followed, and, and, set under the people that followed him. I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in all, in Israel. And they that were sent returning to the house, found the servant whole, the heaven’s sick. Faith expresses itself in a great confidence in God’s Word. Just say the Word. Lord, if you say the Word, I know. it will come to pass. He says that in seven and eight, and in verse 10, we see it coming to pass. Now, faith expresses itself in your great confidence in God’s work. As an army commander, the Centurion had under him at least a hundred men, something like that. And when a Roman officer gives orders, go and take that help, or come over here and support the line, He expects those soldiers to just without any hesitation, without any argument, to do exactly what he says. They’re trained to do that. To take commands and follow through. There’s not going to be any debate on the issue. The commander says, do it. And he knows it’s going to get carried out. That’s what it’s all about. The centristian, if you could picture him perhaps sitting back, at his headquarters or whatever it is, and affecting his desires on the battlefield or wherever he’s involved, maybe he’s just trying to quell a riot in the city or something, without physically even being present, all he has to do is give the order. His faith here places Christ in the same position. You don’t need to come to my house. Just say the word. Give the word. Give the command. this servant of mine will be healed. That’s what he says. His faith in throne Christ as a captain over all the forces of the world, even sickness and disease, that he could do what he wanted to do. His faith says, thy word is enough to bring about this cure. In other words, if Christ would just give his word, it would be a guarantee. that this servant would be healed. Just say the word, that’s all I need. This is a particular attribute of God that he can give a command and is immediately carried out. We see this a creation. Let there be light, or let there be this, or let there be this, or let there be, and it just carries, it’s carried out. He’s attributing here, I think, a divine characteristic to Christ. Just give the command. Friends, this is how faith operates. You believe whenever the Word of God says you have confidence in it coming to pass. You think Christ has promised to those who trust in him salvation. And you save yourself, what? I’ve trusted in Christ, therefore I am saved. Trusting in His Word. Christ’s saved. Faith takes God at His Word. You don’t know. need special signs. You don’t need anything else to convince you. You come to the Word of God and that in itself. We’re trusting in it and believing what it says. Now, you also find here, while faith expresses itself in your great confidence in God’s word, you find great faith is not very common. Verse 9 here. Faith like every other. grace exists in various degrees. Some have it only, as Jesus said, as a grain of mustard seed, which is really a small and tiny seed. You might have an itsy-bitsy faith. It’s still faith. It’s still saving, but it may be small. It needs to be developed. Needs to grow. Others have great faith, or are said to be strong in faith in scripture. Most Christians, have it somewhere in the middle, a middle faith of some sort. Our Lord here is wonderfully pleased with the faith of this century, and it’s all the more surprising because he’s a Gentile. It just goes to show you that when the Spirit works in someone’s life, it doesn’t matter how many handicaps this person has. When the Spirit works, he can produce great things in people. Christ would have his decisive. and the people who are following around watching what he’s doing realize that this man has great faith and he has to find anything like this in Israel among his own people. That’s an astounding statement when you think about. The Bible says here that Christ marveled. Now, here again, there are passages in Scripture that show us that God, that Christ marveled. Christ had a human nature. He was made like unto us in all things, sin except. He grew in wisdom, and in statute the scripture tells us, he hunger, he thirsted, he thirsty, he grew weary, he sorrow, he rejoiced, he groaned, he agonized, he bled, he suffered, he died. He did that. He with regard to his human nature. And so as a man, he marveled here. At the same time, we have to understand that he was the eternal God who knew all things. The two natures of Christ, him being the God man, is a great mystery, which we cannot fully fathom, nor can I fully explain. It is amazing, though, that Christians, as we look at it, at this passage, are satisfied with their faith. Should we be satisfied? When have you ever asked the Lord, when have you ever prayed, Lord, increase my faith? Has that ever been a petition of yours and you pray? So you find great faith is not very common, and you must endeavor to walk by faith. Now, salvation comes from faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, but you have to continue to exercise faith. You don’t just do it once, and that’s all the faith is only needed for that. The Bible says we’re to walk by faith. Every day, day in and day out, faith is to be evident in our lives. The faith exhibited by the centurion. My friends, you and I can’t see our name in the book of life. We live by faith that it’s there. You and I cannot see Christ. Christ interceding at the right hand of God, praying for us. We can’t see that. By faith, we believe. We can’t see the angels ministering to our needs as we go through this life. Although there happen times when I have thought, boy, the angel of God must have watched over me when this occurred, because I might have been killed. In this car accident, the time we were driving, the car did a donut in the snow. And I had cars all right. It was like 19 more, you know, two lanes on each side. There was no barrier there, you know, and I’m thinking, oh, man, we’re going around in a circle and everything was going to slow motion. I’m thinking, where we could end up and move will we get to crash into? That’s the only thing I could think of. We ended up in the turn lane and facing the right direction. just as if we had planned that to go over there. And I told Raina, I think the Lord would have us turn around and go back home. I go to the doctors this morning. I think I can do without the car practice. And so there are ties you, you might think, maybe there was, you know, the angel of God’s watching over because I don’t know how that happened. But we can’t see it. But you have Christ’s word. Do you believe it? Do not doubt what God’s word says, where there’s any hesitation, when any doubt exists, when we struggle, let’s ask for more faith. Lord, increase our faith. Remember, the just shall live like faith. Faith is in the spending. So you see an example here for faith. Well, the century, and I have to close this morning, provides a good example here of these three Christian graces. We should try to be like you. We should have kindness. We should have humility. And we should have faith. All three of these are gifts of the spirit of God within us. And they all need to be developed within us as well. But let us close with the word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we bow before you. And we acknowledge, Father, that we’re not as godly or as righteous as we should be. But we pray, Father, that in spite of all our sinfulness, all our wretchedness, all our failure, that you would be gracious to us. Help us, Father, to have these graces in abundance in our life, that we may be a people who are different from the world around us. We ask these things in Christ’s precious name with Thanksgiving. Amen.