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In the eighth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, beginning in the fifth verse, Matthew chapter eight, verse five, says, And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith to him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof. Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. 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. 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. I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And the servant was healed in the selfsame hour. I was trying to think, Brother Barrio as you were speaking, or when I saw you this morning, were where we first encountered and I was thinking Mount Zion, but I knew that wasn't right. And I appreciate you mentioning about No, it was a corn, but it was it was you had it right, and so uh I remember that day. Uh I hadn't thought about it a long time, but as soon as you said it, I remember that day very well. Um I'm so thankful to see you all. Um as I I'm not an I was born in 1980, so I'm about to turn 46. Uh and well we're all we're all passing away. As I'm not typically a person that is overly sentimental. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about the past. Uh but the Bible does speak a lot about memorials. But there are things to be remembered. And when I come to places like this and see faces that go way back in my own experience, I am grateful. To pause and to recount uh the great spiritual blessings and experiences that I've had together with you. Um I try to be a forward-thinking person looking at things ahead and things that need to be done and things, but it is important to stop and reflect. God has given us a at least for me, a just a colorful and wonderful life. I'm very grateful. Why do you sit in here to make up the tapestry of my experience? And I am so thankful for the opportunity just to be here with you, much less have the privilege to speak in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and uh I don't take that lightly. In the Bible we find several centurions are called out. There's this centurion. There was one at the foot of the cross that when the death of Jesus occurred and the rocks rent the earthquake and the temple veil was rent into from top to bottom, and he made a statement that was true, but not altogether encapsulating the treaty. He got one word I wish he'd have said is, but he understood something about Jesus that many did not. We find that the Apostle Paul encountered at least two different centurions. And it's interesting, every single one of those that I find in the scriptures were kindly men. Not one do you find that were men that took their authority and power to their heads and mistreated people. And in this case, that we've read in your hearing this morning, to me, what as you look at the whole scene of what this man is doing, it's amazing. So centurion is a Roman soldier who is commissioned to have charge over 100 soldiers. Now, obviously, that's not a large uh regiment uh that you would say was under his authority, but still he had the responsibility to oversee, give oversight, command to a hundred Roman soldiers. So it was a fairly important position. Now he had he had men above him and men under. So he understood taking orders, he understood giving orders. But he's a Roman citizen. And in the days of Jesus, Judea is under occupation by Rome. They do not have the freedom to govern their own nation. In fact, that was one of the things that confused the Jewish people in the coming of the Messiah. They perceived that when he came, there would be a political revolution, that the powers of Rome would be overthrown, and that the kingdom of Israel would go back to much like it was in the days combined of David and Solomon. That's how they envisioned things. As you, the peak of the nation of Israel was in the reign of Solomon. That was the greatest power, that was the greatest expanse of their authority, their wealth, and that's what they imagined that Jesus was going to bring back. They thought they would become a dominating world power once again when the Messiah came. And so when Jesus was not focused on that, when he says, My kingdom is not of this world, else my servants would fight. That was so confusing. Even the last question the disciples ask in the first chapter of the book of Acts is, Lord, will thou at this time restore the kingdom again to Israel? In other words, you're about to leave. When? When will this power be overthrown and will be able to be autonomous and sovereign again as a kingdom? And they still had not understood. That was not his focus. That was not why he was here. That's not why he came. So imagine if you're one of the twelve apostles walking with the Lord Jesus Christ, and now here comes a Roman soldier. Why is he even in Capernaum? Because he's given charge over a hundred soldiers to keep rebellion from taking place. There had been, as you read the scriptures about Jesus, but also about the apostles, there had been different. In fact, one of the apostles was called a zealot, meaning he was a political zealous man, meaning he, uh his, look, we've got them among our people as well, that are very zealous about politics. I wish they would be as zealous about the kingdom of God as they are about some of the things that go on in the political arena. I pay attention to what goes on, but uh it's I don't want it to govern my life. But listen, so just imagine you're a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. There have been attempts to overthrow the Roman government. In fact, it's going to get so bad that by 70 AD, uh, Caesar is going to send Titus, a general of Rome, to Jerusalem to besiege it and overthrow that city and only, and it's a judgment of God, destroy the city so that one stone is not left upon another of the temple. And all of that is because of their attempts to revolt against the Roman Empire. Now there's a lot of spiritual darkness that's going on that feeds into a lot of that. But either way, imagine again, here you are, a Jewish uh disciple of Jesus, and here is this man a centurion, a man of authority, a man that has a hundred soldiers, and their whole job is to keep you from rebelling against the Caesar in Rome. That's why they're here. That's why uh they exist. Imagine, if you will, another world power here in our nation. All of a sudden dispatching soldiers and generals to various communities strategically to keep us under bondage so that we would not band together and overthrow a foreign power. That's what's going on here in Matthew chapter 8. You have a foreign power with their army on the ground to keep things in check so that their providence doesn't escape their authority. And now there's this man Jesus, the Savior, the Messiah, the one sent from heaven. And he's going about doing good. That's one of the things the Bible says about him. He went about doing good. I told you last night what's in my will to be transcribed or ascribed on my tombstone, if it's applicable at my death. And I had a little struggle, which one would win out, and it ended up being what Paul said in 2 Timothy. But I fought a good fight, I finished my course, I've kept the faith. But another one that I struggle, I hope it can be said about me when I pass. I hope that whoever preaches my funeral can say, he went about doing good. I know I won't measure up to Jesus. I know that. But I do want to go about doing as good as I can for the people of God and people I encounter, whether it's my family, our church, people I work with, people in our community, I want to go about doing good. There's so many people that all they want to do, they want to shed innocent blood. Uh they speak evil things, their hands do wickedly, their feet are swift, and I don't want to be in that camp of people. I don't even want to be around those folks. And the older I get, the more I want to be away from them. So here it says, when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion. Now that's amazing in itself, because as you read the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus, there are not too many times that he paused for Gentiles. In fact, two chapters later, in the tenth chapter of Matthew, when he gives charge to his twelve apostles to go out preaching, he limits where they can go. He lets them know that they're not to go to the Gentiles, they're not to go to the cities of the Samaritans, but rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now, he will remove that um stringent requirement in the 28th chapter of Matthew before he leaves this world. But from Matthew 10 to Matthew 28, the charge to the apostles is that they were to go about preaching the kingdom of heaven to uh Israelites only. Now, in Matthew 28, he says, All power is given to me both in heaven and earth. Why does he say that? Because what he's about to say, they need to understand he has heaven's authority to say so. He says, All power is given to me both in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore, and preach the gospel, he says, to all nations. In other words, you're no longer constrained to only speak to Israelites. You can go to the Samaritans and you can go to the Gentiles. That took the apostles a little while to figure that out because even in Acts chapter 10, Peter says, Not so, Lord. I'm not going to do that. Well, the Lord got through to him and he went and he preached at the house of a centurion named Cornelius. Anyway, back here. Jesus did not spend much time taking care of Gentiles. In the 15th chapter of Matthew, we find that there was a Syrophenian woman that comes to Jesus and says, Lord, thou son of David, have mercy upon me, for my daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. And it says Jesus answered her not a word. And so then she goes to the disciples. The disciples come to Jesus and say, Send her away, she crieth after us. And so the Bible says, She worshiped him. You know how she worshiped him? Here's how she worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. Say, how in the world can me asking the Lord to help me is a manner of worship? Because when you do that, you're saying, I realize, I recognize that you're the only help there is. That is one manner that we ascribe that God is God by saying, Lord, there's no other help besides you. And I recognize my weakness and my infirmity, and there's no help on earth that can reach my case. But I know that you understand and that you have the authority and the ability to help in my case. And so she worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. And he says, You know, it's not meat. It's not right to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. She says, Truth, Lord. You know what she just said? I know I'm a dog. You know, a lot of people would have got offended and say, you know what, Jesus, I don't need you. I'm going to go about my. I know that. I know what I am. But even the dogs eat from the crumbs that fall from the master's table. It's amazing the faith that was displayed by some Gentiles that had such limited knowledge of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So this centurion comes to the Lord. And as the centurion comes to the Lord, it says he was beseeching him. That means he was begging, entreating him, saying, Lord, my servant lie at homesick of the palsy, grievously tormented. That tells me a lot about the centurion. Number one, he understands that this Jew is not ordinary. He's an extraordinary man. He understands that. But also it shows that he has a great compassion. This word servant in the Bible many times means a slave. Someone who has no liberty of their own, that is owned by another. So this centurion, as a centurion, he has some privileges in his life. And one of those privileges is he has someone within his household that belongs to him, that is literally, he literally owns this human. Obviously, we in our nation know about the scourge of slavery. And listen, it is not something that's only been known in our nation. It's been something that's been going on among humanity since the fall. That's just a reality. It's going on even as I speak in parts of the world right now. I'm not saying it's right, but it's just a reality. But notice this centurion. He's not coming for something for himself. Even though he owns this man that's at his home who's grievously sick, yet he has a compassion for this man. He has a tenderness for this individual. He understands that this man needs help that only the Son of God can provide. And so this man, even though he's a Gentile who has authority over soldiers in the nation to keep rebellion down, still believes that the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ will be extended towards him and through him to his servant who's at home sick and uh deal with palsy, a grievous uh ailment of the body. So he says, Lord, notice that, Lord Adonai, master. That's what that word means, master. And so I love Jesus says to him, you know, in the Word of God, when people were sick, they came to Jesus. When they were dead, Jesus came to them. Never one time did a dead person come to Jesus. Also, never did anyone die in his presence. Well, but what about the thief on the cross? Jesus had already died. No one could die in Jesus' presence. When Martha said, Lord, had thou been here, my brother had not she was right. You know, when Mary said it, almost the same exact words, the Lord didn't. It had to be something in the tone and the attitude about Martha versus Mary. But she was right. If he'd have been there, he hadn't have died. Death could not stand in the presence of Jesus. Funerals could not go on when Jesus came on the scene. I mean, as you read in Luke chapter 7, the widow and Nahan, they're heading out of the city to take him to his burying place. And here comes Jesus, he touches the byre. And he says, Young men arise, and that young man arose. But in the Word of God, the people who were sick, they were either brought to Jesus or they came to Jesus on their own. Now it's true there were times that he passed by where they were, like Barnamaeus, but uh uh if you had a sickness, not death, you had a sickness, you could come to Jesus. And that tells me that there are times that you and I, uh, whether physically sick or spiritually or ailing, we need to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. But listen, when you were deaf and trespassing sins, there was no way that you could come to the Lord Jesus Christ. But he came to where you were, just like he did the wit of a baby's son, just like he did Janus' daughter, and just like he did for Lazarus. Uh uh in your deaf and sins. You did not come to where Jesus is, he came to where you were. But here in this case, Jesus is so touched, and you have to imagine again what were the disciples thinking? Again, put yourself in their shoes. You're an occupied nation, and now a representative of that government is coming to ask your leader for help, and Jesus says, I'll come and heal him. Do you think that was perplexing to the disciples? I suspect it had to have been. It should have taught the disciples something, though, about their Lord. That he wasn't just here for Jews. In fact, he'll get to that in a few moments. The people of God are vast and many. They come from every tribe, every nation, every tongue, every people. And Jesus would display that. So Jesus said, I'll come and I'll heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof. I think about in the Gospel of Luke when there was a Pharisee by the name of Simon, that Jesus went to his home. Now, I don't find Jesus in too many Pharisees' homes, but he did go to the home of Simon the Pharisee, and that's the occasion that the woman that the Bible says was a great sinner. She came to the Lord and she took ointment, and there she anointed the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. She came pouring out what she had. Now, I suspect that very ointment she had used that for her occupation, maybe even the night before. But now Jesus is on the scene, and there is something that's changed in this woman, and she wants to work. And that Pharisee said in himself, if this man knew, in other words, that tells me he knew enough about her, if Jesus just knew what and who she is, he would have nothing to do with her. Well, Jesus could read his thoughts and know his heart, and Jesus responded. And he gave that parable about someone forgiven a little and forgiven much, and who would love more. Simon said, I suppose he that was forgiven much, he says, You have spoken wisely. Well, anyway, here the centurion says, I'm not worthy. Think about the humility of this man. Now there's a boldness because he is a Gentile, has approached this man as a Jew. First of all, he would think himself, you would think, greater than the nation that he's occupying. Here he is, a Roman. Here he is, a centurion of the Romans. Here he is given authority by Caesar to keep these people under their dominion and control. But yet that did not prevent this man from seeing something about Jesus, no matter what his occupation was. He did not allow that to go to his head and think lower of Jesus than he should have. He recognized that this was the only help that he could find. He says, Lord, Adonai, Master, I need your help. It also tells us that this man, again, had a compassion for people that were beneath him, or what many would consider beneath. But also then he saw himself unworthy that his master should come to his house. I hope Jesus abides at our home. I hope that he is not ashamed to come and be in our home. I hope he's not ashamed to come and be within our congregation back home. I hope, but I hope we understand that we are not worthy that Jesus would come under our roof. But notice what he goes on, he says, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. Jesus, I know all you have to do is say the word, and it'll be done. He didn't need a great display of power. He didn't even need Jesus to be present. He didn't even need to be present with the servant when it happened. He just says, Lord, speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. But this man goes on to describe something to let Jesus know, which he already knew this, but to let us know that this man had an understanding of the sovereign power of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've heard about the goodness of the Lord. I love what Paul says in Romans 11. He says, Behold the goodness and the severity of the Lord. And we never need to preach the goodness of God to exclude the holiness of God. We must understand that our God is a holy God. And it's because of his holiness that you and I could not approach him in our nature, but thank God he has changed our nature. As it's written in Peter's wrath, he's made us partakers of the divine nature. And through that and by that now you and I can approach him. Well, anyway, this man says, I'm a man under authority. That means I have people above me. He says, and I have soldiers under me. So I know what it is to receive orders, and I know what it is to give orders. He says, I say to this man, go, he goeth. To another I say, come and he cometh, and to my servant, do this, and he doeth it. What's he mean by that? He says, I know all I have to do is issue the command. I don't have to set the example. I don't have to go grab them by the arm and pull them and uh constrain them to do what I tell them to do. I understand that I have an authority, and there's authority above me, that all I have to say is go and they'll go. I'll say come and then I'll come, and I'll tell my servant to do this, and he's going to do it. And notice he says, they're not going to question me in that. They're just simply going to react. Why did he say that to Jesus? Because he's saying to Jesus, I understand. There's no authority over you. All you have to do is say the words, and that's going to take care of it. How often do we need to be reminded of that? That all it would take is Jesus to speak, and our hearts would be calm. For Jesus to speak, and our circumstances would be turned 180. All we had to do, as we spoke last night from Mark 4, when they were in that ship, he said, Peace be still, and all of a sudden the wind and the sea were in a perfect, the Bible says a great calm. Started out a great storm, it ends a great calm. That's what Jesus can do just by speaking the word only. See, the Bible says in Psalm 33, He spake, and it was done, He commanded, and it stood fast. You know how this universe continues? Hebrews 1 says, He upholdeth all things by the word of his power. Colossians 1, by Him all things consist. This world does not spinning out of control because Jesus is holding it together. He's upholding it by the word of his power. If he could speak, and all of a sudden the earth was made, the heaven was made, and then he speaks, and trees come forth, uh the waters are separated, and all the things of creation that were made from nothing, they appeared. Listen, he can just speak from heaven, and whatever you're struggling with, it won't dissipate in a moment. That's the God that we serve, that's the Savior who's on our side. That's the man that this Gentile soldier could see and perceive that even the disciples did not quite comprehend. There's something that this Gentile could perceive about the Lord Jesus Christ that you and I, I hope we understand. But I know there's times that we struggle with the reality that our Savior sits at the right hand of it and he just has to speak the word only. And whatever our situation is will be turned around. Whether he changes our circumstances or just gives us a calm in the midst of it. Now I prefer him to change my circumstances when they're not enjoyable. But you know what's more important is he settled my heart, whatever the circumstances. Paul would say he's not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind. And so when I don't have the feeling of power or love over a sound mind, I know that the Lord's not in charge. At least in that moment, I'm not I'm not operating as though the Lord is in charge. Let me put it that way. So this man says, I understand what authority is, I understand what sovereignty is. I understand that you have the ability to just speak, and when you speak, it'll be done. No doctor can do that. At my age, I've already got five or six doctors, I can't remember at the moment. I've got an eye doctor, I've got an ear nose and throat doctor, I've got a heart doctor, I've got a regular doctor, I have uh uh take care of my spots on my skin. Several doctors in my life already, about to get a new one. And as I'm aging, I'm learning that just more and more doctors are, but you know, I haven't been to one yet that can just speak, and my situation's taken care of. They tell me, well, you need to eat this or quit eating this, and that will help. Or they'll tell me, well, you need this medication and that will help, or the day's coming that you're gonna need this surgery and that's going to help. And uh, but they don't ever just say the word and and my situation has changed. They can't do that, they don't have that ability. Now, listen, I'm very grateful. I obviously believe in modern medicine, or I wouldn't have as many doctors as I do. I thank God that we live in the time that we do. I hear a lot of people complain about how bad things are right now, and I'm not saying that they're not, but would you like to go back a hundred years? Number one, just thank God for air conditioning. I live in Central Florida, we need it down there. I don't know how they function in that part of the country before they had it. And I'm from West Texas. I can remember days that hit 117 degrees in Tuscola where we live. I didn't like that either. I'm thankful the time in which we live. I'm thankful for what God has provided. And there's nothing wrong with seeking those helps. I believe God in his mercy has given them to us. We shouldn't do so to the exclusion of including the Lord in that. There was a king in Israel's day named Asa. Good king. But then as he got older, he quit trusting in God. Instead, he trusted in the alliances he could make with other kings and nations and their armies. The Bible says he was diseased in his feet. He sought not in the Lord but to the physicians. You know what happened? It says, and he died. I wonder how that might have been changed if he'd have sought the Lord and then the physicians. Maybe things would have turned out better for Asa, but anyway. This man realizes there's no help for this servant outside of Jesus. And we need to understand that is true for you and I too. I don't care what your problem is, how great or how small. And one of the things I'm still learning as a parent is when my children come to me with a problem that to me, I'd like to tell them listen, let's trade problems for a little while. Let me give you mine. But they can't handle that. They're not there yet. And one of the things that I've learned the hard way is that I need to understand that in their young lives, what they're dealing with at that moment is the worst thing they've dealt with yet. And those things that I think are simple and small are uh hard for them. And it's through those little things that they will learn the help of Jesus if I will help guide them in the right way instead of just dismissing them as though it's not a big deal. It's not to me, it is to them, and I need to see it as such. Listen, I don't care how small your problem seems or how great it seems, you have one in heaven who is able to understand it. Brother Barry's already talked to us about that. I may not comprehend what you're going through, but Jesus was in all points uh attempted like as we are yet without sin. That means he comprehends, he understands. There's some people that go through things and I try to sympathize. That means I try to understand, I haven't been there. Now, there's some things I can empathize with, meaning I know because I have been there, but thank God there's one in heaven who knows every problem that all of us face. And all I have to do is say, Lord, speak the word only. This man understood what I have to continually be reminded of is that Jesus is sovereign, but that Jesus cares. As we spoke last night, he's for us. And the proof of that is because he was with us when he came in his humanity, and he's obviously still with us because he has said, I will not leave thee nor forsake thee. So here this man comprehended something that I'm not sure I don't think the disciples had yet grasped fully. Um so this man, I mean, he's introduced to us out of nowhere, and then after this experience, we don't hear about him again. I don't know his name, I don't know the service name, but I find uh immeasurable things out about this man, about his compassion, about his trust, about the things he understands and the faith that he has in the Lord. Notice verse 10, when Jesus heard it two times in the Bible, Jesus marvels. Only twice does Jesus marvel. He marveled at the belief, and he marveled at people's unbelief. That's marvelous, isn't it? I mean, uh, and as I think about that, I have found myself in the very same category. When I have preached the doctrines of grace and I see people rejoicing and saying amen and coming to me later and talking about what that did for them, I marveled that something that seems too good to be true, even to me at times. I have to sometimes think, is this really so? Um and I marveled that people believe. I'm amazed uh we a young man uh started attending our congregation two or three years ago, uh dating a girl in our church, and he's what's what's he's not he's a primitive Baptist now, but uh he was raised to be a messianic Christian. That means his family, they only use the five books of Moses. So they still function as though the law was fully in place. Now they believe in the Messiah, they believe Jesus is the Christ, but they don't believe he fulfilled the law. Well, they meet on Saturday because they still uh maintain worship on the Sabbath, where we meet the first day of the week. So this young lady in our church said, if you're gonna date me, you have to come to church with me. It worked out well because his family met on Saturday and he would come with her on Sunday. I just happened to be preaching on Christ the fulfillment of the law. And it had it wasn't planned that way, and over several sermons I just was led in that, and I literally watched a young man sitting on the back row on my right hand side. I watched as a man went from law to grace. It was phenomenal to watch this unfold. It it was like what Paul and the apostles saw as they preached the gospel to Jews, and these people turned away from Judaism and embraced Christianity. I got to watch that scene unfold in this young man's life. He's only 21 years old, and he is so excited about the Lord and the doctrines of grace, and uh baptized him about a year and a half ago, and he has just been such a blessing to observe. But I marveled as I watched this young man believe. I should. It shouldn't be something that we marvel at on one hand, but if Jesus marveled at it, I presume it's okay for us too as well. And Jesus marveled when others didn't believe. And you know, sometimes I'm talking about the doctrines of grace that to me just make such logical sense. They're sequential, they're orderly, they're listening God is not a God that is lacking in logic. The way God made this world, the way God set up salvation, it is very sequential, it's very logical, it makes sense. But there are people that their eyes are blinded, their ears are deaf, where they're and their hearts are hardened, that they cannot perceive, they just can't grasp these things. And I try to explain it, and I think I'm being plain and clear and bringing it in simple terms, and they just look at me and say, That just can't be true. And then I marvel, like, how in the world can you not get this? If you're an intelligent person, much smarter than I am, how can I see it, but you can't? Because the Lord has just not in his providence shown him. And so, anyway, Jesus heard it, he marveled, said to that and that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great a faith, no, not in Israel. Sometimes we might read that statement and just pass by, but think about it. He came to his own, John 1 says. Again, we've already quoted Matthew 10, where he came from the lost sheep of the house of Israel. John 1, he came to his own, but his own received him not. So here he is among his own people, and he says, I've not seen so great faith, um, or I've not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. Among the people that I've come to and come for, I've not seen them exhibit a confidence in me to this degree that I've seen it in this centurion, who is a Gentile foreigner who doesn't know as much about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as y'all do. He says, I say unto you that many, I love this, many, not a few, many shall come from the east and the west. Many, we can't emphasize that enough, many shall come from the east and the west. I don't know how many, since the days of Acts 10 when Peter preached to Cornelius, and then as um Philip went to, well, in Acts 8, Philip goes to uh Samaria and preaches the gospel there, and then ends up preaching to the eunuch. And then finally, uh Saul and Barnabas, they began their first journey outside the boundary of Israel, preaching the gospel in multiple cities, and then Paul will make uh uh three journeys, and then finally the last journey, the fourth going to Rome under arrest. How many since those days of the book of Acts outside of Israel have believed the gospel of the Son of God? I don't know. It's been a lot. Jesus said, Many shall come from the east and west. But notice what he says, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. That had to be offensive to these Jewish believers to hear that these Gentiles from the east and west, and not a few, but many of them, were going to come and be blessed by Jesus to sit down in the kingdom of heaven. Now, that phrase means the kingdom that is from heaven, it means a kingdom that's heavenly in its nature. It's talking about the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not an eternal verse here. This is a temporal verse talking about the visible kingdom of God here on earth, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we do believe, I trust, in the eternal kingdom of God where all the elect family will be together. Not every child of God, though, is blessed to come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom. But many are, many have been, and I hope many more will before this earth has its end. But notice he says, there shall be many from the east, they will come, and the west, and they shall sit down. Why these three men? Of all that he could have met, well, number one, those are the men that these Jewish people identify their lineage with the most. I mean, it is Abraham who is the father of the Hebrews. And so obviously his name is going to be called out. But as I consider and think about Abraham and think about his life, one of the things that you'll notice when Abraham is 75 and he's called by God to go to a place that God would later show him, what does he do in his journey? Except when he goes to Egypt, there's one exception in his life. Everywhere he goes, what would he do? He would build an altar. He was a man that worshiped. He was a man of worship. We talk about the faith of Abraham, and he was a man of faith, but through faith he worshiped God. Now, when he went into Egypt, which is a picture of darkness and bondage, he never raised up an altar in Egypt. But when he came out of Egypt, he raised up the altar again that he had first built. He was a man of worship. When I think about Isaac, obviously these are men that these Jews would know, but there's some things I think we can clean. One of the things that stands about out about the life of Isaac. Abraham had more than one wife. When he was married to Sarah, he also had a handmaider Sarah's handmaid. He was not faithful to spend his life with one woman only. Jacob wasn't either. But Isaac stands alone. If you read about all the patriarchs, Isaac is different. When Rebekah comes to Isaac, the Bible says when he saw her, they joined. They went to his mother's tent. She became his wife, and he was comforted about the death of his mother Sarah. Isaac was faithful to Rebekah all the days of his life. No other woman was in his life. And then as I think about Jacob, I think about a man who was he was a scoundrel. I mean, think about it. I mean, even in his birth, as he's coming forth from the womb, he reaches out to catch the hill. That's why his name is called Jacob. It means the hill catcher, it means a supplanter. That means one who tries to overtake another's place. And what does he do throughout the first portion of his life? He's always trying to get ahead of Esau. He steals his birthright. And then he takes his blessing. He's always trying to get ahead. But then we find God intervened in his life. And what is it that God says is he's coming back and he's going to face Esau? And as far as I know, had it not been for that night of prayer that Jacob wrestled with the Lord to the break of the day, I suspect Esau would have murdered him. Now that's just my suspicion, it's speculation, but I there's a reason I believe that Jacob wrestled all night with God. I believe the heart of Esau was changed toward his brother in that night of struggling prayer. But in that night of struggling prayer, and as the day was dawning, the angel, who was the Lord, said, Let me go. Jacob said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me. The angel said, What is thy name? You think the Lord didn't know his name? The Lord knew who he was. Sometimes the Lord asked questions, and he never asked questions to gain information, but a lot of times the Lord in the Bible asked questions so that we would stop and think, What is thy name? And he says, My name is Jacob. You know what I think? Jacob had just now done. Come to a full realization of exactly who and what he was. I am Jacob. What does that mean? I am the one who supplants. I'm the deceiver. I am the man that stole from my brother. I'm the man that when my brother was hungry and faint to the point of dying, I said, I'll give you something to eat, but first you have to give me your birthright. Give me what belongs to you, and then I'll give you a morsel to eat. Think about that. This is his natural brother, and yet he's going to use that experience, that take advantage of his brother in that way. He said, Well, what good is this? Birthright to me if I'm about to die, so he sells it. Now, the Bible condemns him for that, and rightly so, but I think Jacob in this moment finally admits to himself and to the Lord who and what he is. Here's what I want to glean from that. The Lord responds, Thou shalt be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince hast thou had power with God and men, and hast prevailed. So you have Abraham who worships, Isaac who is devoted in love, and then you have Jacob, a man who prevails with God. Combine them all together, and what do you see in the Lord Jesus Christ? A man to be worshipped, a bridegroom who has been devoted to you and I since the foundation of the world. And no matter how dark we were in our nature, no matter how corrupt we were in our activity, it never divided us from the love of Christ. As we saw last night from Romans 8, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And he gives us this long list of things that cannot. He says, we are more. Than conquerors through him that loved us, not that we who loved him, as it says in 1 John 4, we love him because he first loved us. So many shall come from the east and the west, and we will worship a man that is to be worshipped, and we will be loved by a man, and I trust love a man that is altogether lovely, who's been committed to us, even though we at times have not been faithful to him. And we come to worship a man who has had power with God and men, and he's prevailed. He's prevailed over our sin. He's prevailed over the curse of the law. He's prevailed over everything that intervened between us and God. And he's removed all that out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And thank God when you and I come into the kingdom of heaven here on this earth, we're able to worship one who deserves our worship. We worship one who has loved us completely, fully, and totally. And we worship one who has prevailed against all our foes. And now the day approaches that we will see our ultimate victory consummated when Jesus arrives the second time and takes us into glory. And there those gates of heaven, the everlasting doors open wide, and all the saints of God come in, and here he says, Behold, I and the children which God hath given me, as we sing, what a day that will be. This man, this centurion, was blessed to see the God man who's to be worshipped. He was blessed to see the one that loved him with an unyielding love. And he was able to see in Jesus a person who had power with God and with men, and who is a prevailing Savior. And through that, he was able to say, All you have to do is speak the word, and my servant shall be made whole. And when he went home, you know what he found? His servant had been made whole at the very hour that Jesus spoke. May God bless you, as our friend.