SPEAKER_01: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bible with you, I encourage you to open it to the Gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: As we continue our study in Matthew's Gospel this morning, we're going to be looking at Matthew chapter 8 again this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Last week, Pastor Anton covered verses 1 through 4 for us.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning we're going to pick up where he left off in Matthew chapter 8, beginning in verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to go all the way through verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: Again, that is Matthew chapter 8, beginning in verse 5 through verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what the word of God records for us.
SPEAKER_00: When he, that is, Jesus, when he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to him, I will come and heal him.
SPEAKER_00: But the centurion replied, Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.
SPEAKER_00: For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me.
SPEAKER_00: And I say to one, Go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes, and to my slave, do this, and he does it.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, Truly I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, many will come from east and from west and recline at the table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.
SPEAKER_00: In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
SPEAKER_00: And to the centurion Jesus said, Go, let it be done for you as you have believed.
SPEAKER_00: And the servant was healed at that very moment.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I have looked forward to preaching this passage of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: In some ways, I've I've looked forward to this evening even more than preaching this passage.
SPEAKER_00: On Monday mornings, uh our pastoral staff meets together to review Sunday's services, Sunday's sermon to talk about any shepherding issues that we might have to deal with, but also to address the next Sunday's sermon that's intended to help whoever's preaching that Sunday be able to think through it clearly and maybe to pick up any things that might might have missed in his preparation.
SPEAKER_00: And those those times together are gold.
SPEAKER_00: What's better than gold?
SPEAKER_00: Platinum?
SPEAKER_00: Is that the top level now?
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: Those are fantastic.
SPEAKER_00: We have a great time together in those times.
SPEAKER_00: And my desire for tonight is to kind of replicate those meetings.
SPEAKER_00: So this evening's live stream is going to be very live.
SPEAKER_00: We are not prepped for it at all.
SPEAKER_00: All that we're going to do is come together.
SPEAKER_00: I've shared with my guys some of the theological elements that are in this passage that we don't have time to cover this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And they just know what those topics are.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to come and we're going to talk about them in light of this passage.
SPEAKER_00: And you get to sort of join us in that meeting and see what enjoyment and thriving there is as we discuss God's word together.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about some application elements as well that we can't talk about this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Those are all, well, we might call them peripheral issues.
SPEAKER_00: They are related to this passage.
SPEAKER_00: They are found in this passage, but they are not the primary elements that we find here.
SPEAKER_00: So we have to ask the question: why did Matthew tell this story?
SPEAKER_00: There were all kinds of healings.
SPEAKER_00: There were all kinds of miracles that took place.
SPEAKER_00: Again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you look down a little bit further in verses 16 and 17, it says they brought to Jesus many who were oppressed by demons.
SPEAKER_00: He cast out the spirits.
SPEAKER_00: With the word, he healed all who were sick.
SPEAKER_00: Over and over and over again, there are healings.
SPEAKER_00: So why this one?
SPEAKER_00: Why did Matthew want us to know about this centurion?
SPEAKER_00: One might think that this account is another of the wonderful works of Jesus that demonstrate his great compassion on suffering people.
SPEAKER_00: Here's an individual who's so sick he's he's paralyzed.
SPEAKER_00: What compassion do we see in Jesus that he would be willing to go and heal that man?
SPEAKER_00: One commentator suggests that this is an account that demonstrates Jesus' fight against racism and for equality among human beings, drawn from the fact that the centurion was not Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: And yet Jesus crosses that boundary and seeks to minister to that individual.
SPEAKER_00: One could even argue that this is a story about faith, the greatest faith, in fact, that Jesus says he has encountered in his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: While compassion is surely an element in this account, and truths about racism definitely abide here in this text, and while faith is clearly emphasized, none of those is the main subject that Matthew is addressing.
SPEAKER_00: They are not primary takeaways that God intends for us to carry with us from this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, when we put this passage in its context as the second miracle after the Sermon on the Mount, we find that it challenges us to embrace and to submit to the authority of Jesus the Messiah, leading us then to obey the authority of his word.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're familiar with 2 Peter chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Peter chapter 1, the Apostle Peter relates an event that we will see later in Matthew's gospel, where Jesus is on the top of a mountain.
SPEAKER_00: And there's just a handful of disciples with him.
SPEAKER_00: And in a moment he is transfigured, is what we call.
SPEAKER_00: He's changed.
SPEAKER_00: He sort of metamorphosizes into something else.
SPEAKER_00: He's a glorious being.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter, in his book, in 2 Peter, tells us that listen, we could have used that as the means, as the basis for all of our ministry.
SPEAKER_00: But we didn't.
SPEAKER_00: He says we have the prophetic word of God, something that is fully confirmed.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, you would do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: And that we should do that until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts, because we know, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.
SPEAKER_00: He says, listen, we don't look at things because of that mountaintop experience.
SPEAKER_00: We look at things because of what the Word of God says.
SPEAKER_00: The written words of God, Peter said, are not merely from a human source who experienced something grand because they walked with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Peter is making an argument about the origin of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And he says that it originates in God himself.
SPEAKER_00: Through the leading of the Holy Spirit, causing human beings to write the word of God, and that origin in the person of God is the basis of the authority of the scriptures that we have in our hands today.
SPEAKER_00: In much the same way.
SPEAKER_00: The man Christ Jesus possesses all authority because he is God.
SPEAKER_00: All authority resides in him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ possesses all authority because he is God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, just as in the beginning, when God spoke and everything came to be, so too Jesus speaks and his word bears the same authority fulfilling its purpose.
SPEAKER_00: These accounts that follow the Sermon on the Mount show how people responded to Jesus' authority as he taught them on the mountainside.
SPEAKER_00: It demonstrates to us what the leper thought about Christ's authority.
SPEAKER_00: It reveals to us what this centurion believed about the authority of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Later we will see what demons believe about the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The question then comes what will you do about the authority of the Word of God?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has spoken.
SPEAKER_00: You have his word in your hand.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks to you through his word.
SPEAKER_00: Will you hear and obey?
SPEAKER_00: I have a book in my library that Don Carson wrote about 25 years ago, detailing how at that time the postmodern world, as he called it, had gagged God.
SPEAKER_00: In essence, Carson wrote that God was no longer allowed to speak.
SPEAKER_00: His word bears no authority.
SPEAKER_00: Almost 25 years later, I'm afraid that the situation hasn't improved at all.
SPEAKER_00: It's only worsened.
SPEAKER_00: And in that book, Carson applies that that truth of gagging God to the church.
SPEAKER_00: And he does that by highlighting the church of Laodicea in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Carson wrote.
SPEAKER_00: The church in Laodicea, toward the end of the first century, thought of itself as far-sighted, as respectable, basically well off.
SPEAKER_00: From the perspective of the exalted Christ, however, it was blind, naked, and bankrupt.
SPEAKER_00: The nearby town of Colossae enjoyed water that was fresh and cold and therefore useful.
SPEAKER_00: The nearby town of Hieropolis enjoyed hot springs, where people went to take the cure.
SPEAKER_00: But Laodicea's foul water was channeled in through stone pipes, and it was proverbial for its nauseating taste.
SPEAKER_00: The church had become much like the water it drank.
SPEAKER_00: Neither hot and useful nor cold and useful, but merely nauseating.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is prepared to spew this church out of his mouth.
SPEAKER_00: This church makes the exalted Jesus gag.
SPEAKER_00: Here's his conclusion.
SPEAKER_00: This calls for repentance.
SPEAKER_00: The things from which we must turn are not so much individual sins, greed, pride, sexual promiscuity, or the like, as ugly and as evil as they are, but the fundamental heart attitudes that squeeze God and his word and his glory to the periphery while we get on with religion and self-fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: Did you get that?
SPEAKER_00: Let that statement penetrate your soul.
SPEAKER_00: We must repent from the sins of fundamental heart attitudes that squeeze the word of God to the periphery while we get on with our religion and self-fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: He could have been writing about first century Judaism.
SPEAKER_00: He's writing about the 20th century and 21st century America.
SPEAKER_00: In this section of Matthew, we are challenged then to evaluate our submission to the authority of the Word of God through an officer in a Roman army.
SPEAKER_00: We are best able to do that, I think, by seeking to put ourselves in the shoes of a first century Jew reading Matthew's gospel for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: And a first century Jew reading Matthew's gospel for the first time would find many of these elements astonishing.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at them.
SPEAKER_00: The first astonishing item that a first century Jew would see is the appeal.
SPEAKER_00: There is an astonishing appeal that is made to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It says, as he came into Capernaum, remember, he's coming down from the mountainside after teaching, he encounters the leper, and as he goes on, continues on to Capernaum, he comes into this village, and a centurion comes, appealing to him.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.
SPEAKER_00: Luke includes this account in his gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It's found in Luke chapter 7, about the first ten verses or so.
SPEAKER_00: And there are some differences between what Matthew includes and what Luke includes.
SPEAKER_00: In Luke's gospel, the centurion sent Jewish elders to Jesus to ask him to come and heal.
SPEAKER_00: And in a different way, Luke highlights the nearness of death to this individual, whereas Matthew highlights the severity of his suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Now don't get confused by that because those are not contradictions.
SPEAKER_00: They're just different ways of relating the same events.
SPEAKER_00: Each author has a point to make, different points.
SPEAKER_00: Luke makes one point, Matthew makes another point, and it requires, for each of their points, the inclusion or the exclusion of certain details that happened that day.
SPEAKER_00: So for example, Matthew doesn't include the Jewish elders.
SPEAKER_00: But that doesn't mean that it's contradictory.
SPEAKER_00: The elders were coming to Jesus on the centurion's behalf.
SPEAKER_00: As they did so, they were representing him and they were speaking for him.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew doesn't see those details as important to his account, so he doesn't include them, simply saying the centurion appealed to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So Luke includes how he appealed, that is, the means of using Jewish elders.
SPEAKER_00: But the how isn't important to Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, Matthew says what's important is the who.
SPEAKER_00: Not the how.
SPEAKER_00: The who.
SPEAKER_00: That is the centurion.
SPEAKER_00: And that shows us, those differences show us how important it is to understand and to discover the author's intention.
SPEAKER_00: God, through Matthew, desired to communicate particular truth through the details included here, and that begins with this astonishing appeal.
SPEAKER_00: So what makes this appeal so astonishing?
SPEAKER_00: If you make the comparison, Luke says that he was pleading with him earnestly.
SPEAKER_00: Why is this appeal so astonishing?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there are four details we see here that build one after the other.
SPEAKER_00: And much of this, again, comes from putting ourselves in the shoes of a first-century Jewish person.
SPEAKER_00: How would they hear this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, first, they would understand that this is likely the centurion's only family.
SPEAKER_00: It's very likely that this servant who is lying paralyzed is his only family.
SPEAKER_00: You see, centurions were what we might call today career soldiers.
SPEAKER_00: They signed up for 20 years of service.
SPEAKER_00: None of that four or six year stuff.
SPEAKER_00: 20 years all the way through.
SPEAKER_00: And centurions were the only soldiers that were appointed as officers from within the ranks.
SPEAKER_00: One commentary cites the ancient Greek historian Polybius on the kind of individuals centurions were.
SPEAKER_00: They ought not to be over-anxious to rush into the fight.
SPEAKER_00: But when hard pressed, they must be ready to hold their ground and die at their posts.
SPEAKER_00: And then he adds this the centurions were the finest men in the Roman army.
SPEAKER_00: This centurion, because of where he is, would have been in the army of Herodantipus.
SPEAKER_00: Most likely, then, he would have been drawn from to the army from Lebanon or perhaps from Syria.
SPEAKER_00: So here's a Syrian or Lebanese centurion controlling a group of men, 80 to 100 men, within the Roman army stationed in the seaside village of Capernaum.
SPEAKER_00: After their 20 years of service, centurions were allowed to retire to an elevated status in Roman society.
SPEAKER_00: That was to keep them in.
SPEAKER_00: They were not allowed to bring a wife into the service.
SPEAKER_00: They were not allowed to have children in the service.
SPEAKER_00: We know that many centurions had women on the side.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't appear to be this kind of man when we're talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the term that Matthew uses here is someone refers to an individual who's not quite a child and yet not quite a slave.
SPEAKER_00: But somewhere in between.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a man who's married to the military.
SPEAKER_00: And as he's married to the military, he has a servant that belongs to him who has become almost like a child.
SPEAKER_00: His only family, then, in this place, is lying paralyzed near death.
SPEAKER_00: That makes this appeal astonishing.
SPEAKER_00: Centurions were also generally despised by Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: That adds to the surprise here.
SPEAKER_00: Centurions were not Jewish, therefore they were pagans in the Jewish land.
SPEAKER_00: They were outsiders.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't belong.
SPEAKER_00: When you add to that, that they were considered the Roman enforcers, they were enforcing the might of Roman rule on their subjects.
SPEAKER_00: They were generally disappointed.
SPEAKER_00: Despised by the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: They exerted the authority of Rome over Roman subjects, often in cruel and extreme ways.
SPEAKER_00: They would be the ones who would carry out crucifixions.
SPEAKER_00: They would be the ones that would carry out torture.
SPEAKER_00: So the fact that this centurion would come to Jesus and appeal to a Jewish man is surprising.
SPEAKER_00: Centurion was a Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: That's clearly evident from the context of the account.
SPEAKER_00: It's unlikely then that a Jewish man would need to send the Jewish elders to get support from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But a Gentile centurion would need all the help he could get.
SPEAKER_00: And that leads us to the last element here of surprise in this appeal that really builds everything up.
SPEAKER_00: This particular centurion, even though he was a Gentile, even though he was a Roman soldier, he was supported by the Jewish elders.
SPEAKER_00: Say what?
SPEAKER_00: That was rare.
SPEAKER_00: For a Gentile soldier to be well liked, much less a Gentile centurion to be well-liked, was very odd.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in Luke's gospel, the Jewish elders come to Jesus and they say, He is worthy to have you do this for him, because he loves our nation and he is the one who built our synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: He's the patron who supplied the funds to build their synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, they love him.
SPEAKER_00: This story is just turned upside down from a Jewish perspective.
SPEAKER_00: That makes everything about this appeal surprising.
SPEAKER_00: As a common ordinary centurion, this man would normally have had everything going against him to obtain help from a Jewish rabbi.
SPEAKER_00: That makes this an astonishing appeal.
SPEAKER_00: This man had worked hard because he loved the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: And as a result, he loved their God.
SPEAKER_00: And through that, he broke down all the barriers that were erected to get to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever you are, and whoever might be listening to this, do not let anything keep you from coming to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We too often raise up obstacles that keep us from coming to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Tear them down.
SPEAKER_00: Tear them down and come humbly to Jesus like this centurion and do it today.
SPEAKER_00: Now we see here how the centurion came to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He came with an astonishing confession.
SPEAKER_00: What does he say?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, come and heal.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, I will come and heal.
SPEAKER_00: But the centurion replied, Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting that Matthew has flipped around the worthiness.
SPEAKER_00: The Jewish elders in Luke's gospel come to Jesus and say, He is worthy.
SPEAKER_00: But in Matthew, the highlight is the unworthiness within his own estimation.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Lord, I am not worthy to even have you put one foot across the threshold of my home.
SPEAKER_00: Capernaum was an important community on the Sea of Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: It's position near the King's Highway, the major transport area, and as a port on the Sea of Galilee, set it up very nicely for a location of a Roman garrison.
SPEAKER_00: Perfect place to get taxes from goods that were coming into the country.
SPEAKER_00: Perfect area to control the fishing trade.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus made this community the base of his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: We saw that back in chapter 4 and verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: It says, leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus' home base, and it's the station of the Gentile centurion.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not necessarily unusual then that Jesus would encounter a Gentile in his village.
SPEAKER_00: And with the information that Luke provides about the centurion being the patron of the synagogue, it may be that this centurion, this particular one, was known to most everyone in Capernaum.
SPEAKER_00: In some ways, he may have even been sort of an adopted son of the Jewish people in Capernaum.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he carried some of, maybe the greatest authority in Capernaum.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the guy, the authority from a Roman consideration within the village of Capernaum, but that great authority could not heal the most important person in his life.
SPEAKER_00: It was beyond his level of authority.
SPEAKER_00: And this was a situation then that hit him hard.
SPEAKER_00: The reality of life and death was starkly before him, not as a matter of war and battle, but in a very personal and intimate way.
SPEAKER_00: He possessed the authority to order anyone to give care to his servant.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're not told anywhere if anyone had already tried to help.
SPEAKER_00: We are only introduced to the situation at the most critical point of the illness.
SPEAKER_00: It was a severe illness of some kind.
SPEAKER_00: And the language that Matthew uses is forceful.
SPEAKER_00: It's as though the illness has thrown the servant down, sort of body slammed him so that he's paralyzed in the last stages of sickness, nearing death, beyond the help of the soldier.
SPEAKER_00: So he's desperate.
SPEAKER_00: The appeal to Jesus to come and heal is urgent and it's continual.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is very socially aware.
SPEAKER_00: He understood the strangeness of the moment.
SPEAKER_00: A Gentile soldier coming to him, a Jewish teacher asking for him to help his servants.
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't kosher, we might say.
SPEAKER_00: According to the law.
SPEAKER_00: Entering the home of a Gentile is not going to make him unclean either.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus replied, I will come.
SPEAKER_00: I will come, but but you want me to come and heal him?
SPEAKER_00: Where the emphasis is squarely upon Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So it seems to be communicating here that at the same moment, Jesus is expressing a willingness, a desire to be compassionate and to come, and communicating incredulity at the fact that this man is asking him for help.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I will come and heal, but you really want me to come?
SPEAKER_00: Do you really understand what you're asking?
SPEAKER_00: Now let's not forget that in the context of Matthew's gospel, this account is illustrating the truth of the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: So the leper in verses 1 through 4, and this centurion picture the first direct responses to Jesus after the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: It's like pulling somebody at the exit of the church after hearing the sermon.
SPEAKER_00: The leper, since he heard the word of Jesus but then did not obey as he went away, pictures the one in verse 21 to 22 of chapter 7, pictures the one who gladly receives any mercy that God might give him but is not willing to obey.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says he's not part of the Lord's eternal kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: The centurion, however, is a picture of the Beatitudes.
SPEAKER_00: The one who comes to Jesus poor in spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Coming in humility, ready to hear and obey in submission to the king's authority.
SPEAKER_00: Here then is the astonishing confession.
SPEAKER_00: I am not worthy.
SPEAKER_00: Does that not sound like Matthew chapter 5?
SPEAKER_00: Poor in spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute, he has all the authority he needs to command Jesus as a Jewish person under his rule to do what he wants.
SPEAKER_00: But he comes humbly.
SPEAKER_00: Because he understands his position.
SPEAKER_00: He is a man, he says, who's under authority.
SPEAKER_00: He does whatever those over him command him to do.
SPEAKER_00: So he understands obedience.
SPEAKER_00: He understands that when an authority gives you a command, you do it.
SPEAKER_00: And he understands that he is an authority, and those under him obey his orders.
SPEAKER_00: But what does he do then?
SPEAKER_00: He submits to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The Gentile centurion submits to the Lord Jesus, confessing that Jesus has authority over him.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.
SPEAKER_00: Just speak the word.
SPEAKER_00: As a Gentile, as a as a non-Jew, this centurion is now following in the footsteps of the Canaanite Rahab and the Moabite Ruth, trusting in the God of Israel as the supreme God over all things.
SPEAKER_00: We see some of those details here about his faith.
SPEAKER_00: The man confesses his faith in Jesus' authority over all of creation.
SPEAKER_00: There is not a single molecule in the universe that does not obey the Lord's command.
SPEAKER_00: Old commentist Matthew Poole wrote, This man believed diseases were as much at Christ's command as his servants were at his command.
SPEAKER_00: He believed that diseases came at God's command, that they were wrought according to their commission from God, and they went away when God commanded them to go away, so that if he, though at a distance, would command his servant's disease to go away, it would be as effectual as his presence.
SPEAKER_00: Let that truth about the word of God permanently settle within you.
SPEAKER_00: Having the word of God is as effectual as having the presence of Christ Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have that kind of faith in the Word of God?
SPEAKER_00: There's not a single bacteria, there is not one virus that is outside of the order of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The centurion knows nothing will escape obedience to Christ's word.
SPEAKER_00: All that is needed is for Jesus to say the word, to speak the word, and it is done.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, don't come, I'm not worthy.
SPEAKER_00: Just speak.
SPEAKER_00: How often do we treat Christ sort of as our best friend and buddy who will do whatever we want him to do for us?
SPEAKER_00: Almost like a genie in the bottle and an expectation that if you know if we just say, Hey, Jesus, hey, I need you to do this for me, and we expect him to do it.
SPEAKER_00: How often do we acknowledge that we are unworthy of Christ Himself?
SPEAKER_00: To seek Jesus as your Savior and your friend without humbly acknowledging your unworthiness is backwards.
SPEAKER_00: Humbly submit to his lordship, and then you will know the extent of his grace and salvation and friendship.
SPEAKER_00: This man is coming with great humility.
SPEAKER_00: That's astonishing.
SPEAKER_00: Then there's an astonishing revelation.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus hears this.
SPEAKER_00: And he marvels.
SPEAKER_00: It's the only time in Matthew's gospel that Jesus marvels.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, this word is only used twice in the New Testament, here and in Mark chapter 6, where Jesus marvels at the lack of faith in the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: So here he's he's he's marveling at the faith in a Roman centurion.
SPEAKER_00: He's marveling at the faith of someone the Jewish people would be least likely to trust.
SPEAKER_00: But what hope is that for us?
SPEAKER_00: Real faith in Jesus heals eternally.
SPEAKER_00: Because real faith draws one to his mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Humble faith in Jesus the King saves.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus hears this, he marvels, and he says to those who followed him, Truly I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.
SPEAKER_00: He's just been on the mountain surrounded by thousands of people.
SPEAKER_00: No one.
SPEAKER_00: Nowhere in Israel is this kind of faith existing.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have time this morning to really dive into this in depth.
SPEAKER_00: Just want you to note the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ will have many unexpected citizens.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus says they will come from east and west, he's saying you're not going to expect them to be there.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to be like the centurion.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to be the Gentiles, they're going to be the Romans, they're going to be the centurions, they're going to be the despised of the world that nobody else wants to accept, and they're going to be eating with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to be unexpected people in heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And yet at the same time, the Lord Jesus' kingdom will be lacking many who thought they would be there.
SPEAKER_00: The sons of the kingdom are those who think they have the pedigree.
SPEAKER_00: They think they're already in.
SPEAKER_00: For the Jewish people, that was being born Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: They're Jewish, therefore they're already accepted into God's kingdom, and Jesus just says no.
SPEAKER_00: That's astonishing.
SPEAKER_00: Sort of unexpected.
SPEAKER_00: We anticipate Jesus to respond to the astonishing confession of humility with.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he sort of turns around and looks at all the people following him and says, A lot of you aren't going to be where you think you're going to be.
SPEAKER_00: The sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.
SPEAKER_00: It's like they get to the gates of heaven, seeing the light of the sun beyond the gates, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: And instead, as the servant was thrown down, body slammed to paralysis, they are thrown out away from the light into the utter darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth, this expression of hostility and anger that has nothing to do with God.
SPEAKER_00: There's a certain level of expectation then in the sons of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: They expect to be admitted, they expect to be welcomed in, they expect to be celebrated.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says, you know, anybody who comes into my kingdom has the same requirements.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the poor in spirit, who mourn over their sin.
SPEAKER_00: There's a humility in acknowledging our sinfulness before the awesome holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ who paid for our sins, and we come in humility to Him.
SPEAKER_00: But when you have an expectation that you belong, that's not conducive to humility.
SPEAKER_00: Notice then the astonishing confirmation in the very last verse, just a very simple verse.
SPEAKER_00: And to the centurion, Jesus said, Go.
SPEAKER_00: Let it be done for you as you have believed.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus acknowledges his faith.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Centurion, your faith is genuine.
SPEAKER_00: You believe in me properly.
SPEAKER_00: Go.
SPEAKER_00: Let it be done.
SPEAKER_00: Someday I want to know the name of that centurion.
SPEAKER_00: I think we'll see him someday.
SPEAKER_00: What does it say?
SPEAKER_00: And the servant was healed at that very moment.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wasn't even there.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't do something like he did in the boat on the sea.
SPEAKER_00: Peace be still.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't issue a command to the disease.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't issue a command to the virus.
SPEAKER_00: He just said, go, let it be done, and it's done.
SPEAKER_00: Sounds very reminiscent of Genesis chapter 1, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Let there be.
SPEAKER_00: And there was.
SPEAKER_00: Over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: Let it be.
SPEAKER_00: And it was.
SPEAKER_00: You know what that does?
SPEAKER_00: That confirms everything that Matthew has been telling us about the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's confirming for us that Jesus has the authority to say, let it be, and it is.
SPEAKER_00: I like the way Daniel Doriani expresses this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, in all of Jesus' healing, there is never an amulet, a potion, or an incantation.
SPEAKER_00: There's no holy water, there's no midnight trance.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks, and it is so.
SPEAKER_00: His mighty deeds occur in broad daylight before hundreds of sober-minded, even skeptical people.
SPEAKER_00: His wonders are artless and effortless, but never powerless.
SPEAKER_00: He makes disciples by a word and delivers people by a word.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, Matthew says, Submit to the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: What is the primary application then of all of this?
SPEAKER_00: Why does Matthew include the illustration of the centurion?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he does it to counter the illustration of the leper.
SPEAKER_00: The leper, we learned, went away from Jesus having received his grace and did not obey.
SPEAKER_00: The centurion has faith that obeys.
SPEAKER_00: Primary takeaway here then is we better listen and we better obey when Jesus speaks.
SPEAKER_00: Who will enter the kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: Kingdom of Heaven in chapter 7, verse 21, the one who does the will of my Father in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: Who is the wise man who builds his house on a rock?
SPEAKER_00: The one who hears and does.
SPEAKER_00: So let's ask the question: in what ways do we fail to honor the authority of the Word of God?
SPEAKER_00: In what ways do we fail to do that?
SPEAKER_00: In what ways are we like the leper who went away and didn't obey?
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you some thoughts just to get your mind started on this.
SPEAKER_00: We fail to honor the authority of the Word of God when we explain it away.
SPEAKER_00: When we say, yeah, I know that's what the Bible says, but you know, we trail off into something else.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we make excuses for it.
SPEAKER_00: That's old-fashioned.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't apply anymore.
SPEAKER_00: That was a cultural thing.
SPEAKER_00: So we start down the road of explaining it away so that it does not have power for us today.
SPEAKER_00: We fail to honor the authority of the Word of God when we elevate our sin over its authority.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Pastor, I just can't do that because that's just the way I am.
SPEAKER_00: I once worked with someone who struggled with anger in their life, and the repeated refrain was, that's just the way I am.
SPEAKER_00: And it was an excuse putting their own being over the authority of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: We elevate our selfish nature over the authority of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: We put everything and anything that brings us joy and obedience and comfort and peace over obedience to God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter what God says as long as I feel good.
SPEAKER_00: What about its sufficiency?
SPEAKER_00: We fail to trust the authority of the word of God when we don't trust the word of God to be effective.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe what the centurion believed?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, just your word is all I need.
SPEAKER_00: Do we believe the word of God to be sufficient to care for others, to heal our own internal pain?
SPEAKER_00: Often it's it's I need Jesus plus this, Jesus plus this and this, and Jesus plus that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we we can say, yeah, Lord Jesus, I love you, I've come to worship you.
SPEAKER_00: Yet when when he says go, we say, yeah, maybe later.
SPEAKER_00: When he says come, we say, yeah, I'm not right now, I'm busy.
SPEAKER_00: We would rather be our own boss.
SPEAKER_00: If you call him Lord, do you serve him?
SPEAKER_00: If you call him Lord, do you submit to his authority as the centurion did?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you want your own autonomy?
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to be your own centurion, your own master, your own boss, make your own rules in life?
SPEAKER_00: If that's so, then you need to understand that sin is refusing to submit to the lordship of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're more like the leper who goes and does his own thing.
SPEAKER_00: But we ought to be like the centurion, who, even though he had authority, bowed to the authority of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just plant one more thought in your in your mind.
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, as those who who follow Christ, who make up his church, the longer we follow Christ, the greater our chance of developing the attitude of the sons of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: The longer we've walked with Christ, the greater our chance of saying, Lord, I deserve to be let in.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I deserve this.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, do you know how long I've walked with you?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know how much I've given up for you?
SPEAKER_00: Our lives then are no longer lived in humility because of God's gracious provision to us in Christ, but with an attitude of, I belong.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's demanding and it's prideful and it's expectant and it's downright ugly.
SPEAKER_00: But it's humble trust in the Lord's word that motivates us to submit to his authority, and that identifies a genuine follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Matthew wants us to see from the centurion.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we come and we bow before you, knowing that one day your word promises every knee will bow.
SPEAKER_00: Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that you indeed are Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we so confess our arrogance, our own willfulness to go our own way.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we do not want to stand before you in the end as those who said, I'm going to do it my way, I'm going to be my own boss.
SPEAKER_00: But as those who failed and yet said to you, Lord, we need you.
SPEAKER_00: We confess our sin to you, and we come and submit ourselves yet again to the one who controls even all diseases.
SPEAKER_00: May you reign and rule in our hearts, and may your spirit soften our hearts to be receptive to hear your word, to understand it, and to follow it.
SPEAKER_00: Not out of rigid obedience, but out of love for the one who is gracious to us.
SPEAKER_00: In your name we pray these things.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.