The Gospel of Luke 7:1-10 The centurion's faith

Good morning. We're going to move into this passage that Brad just read for us here. We're going to start just by reading verse 1 again here. When he had completed all his discourse, that is Jesus, in the hearing of the people, he went to Capernaum. One of the points that we made in the defense of the faith elective just right before this is that one of the things that grounds the Bible in history and in truth is that we can identify many of the people and places, the geography fits, and even the timing of when was this city inhabited and when was it not, that sort of thing fits well. And for the Sermon on the Mount, which he had just completed, We mentioned that in Luke it's about a hundred and excuse me about 30 verses or verses in Matthew 137 verses So he had just completed that we know about where the Sermon on the Mount was given and We know where Capernaum is we know where the Roman compound was and we'll make reference to that and you've got this on the map on on page 1 and Bethsaida which is the city where Peter and his brother Andrew and Philip, those three disciples, were from Bethsaida and at least Peter and Andrew appear to have relocated to Capernaum. Now, we have reference here to Jesus and the centurion slave.

Matthew and Dr. Luke both have a record of this. In Matthew, it's chapter 8, 5 through 13. Dr. Luke records this event that we've begun taking a look at here, healing a centurion slave who got a fatal illness. We're not told what that was, but apparently a fatal illness. The event begins where Jesus enters Capernaum right after the Sermon on the Mount, the Sermon on the Mount having been given about this location.

Here's a bigger picture here. And so going down the slope towards the Sea of Galilee and then off to the left in this photo to where Capernaum is located. Jesus would have been entering Capernaum from the west side of town. And just to take a look, he would have been coming in this direction and entering into Capernaum. And it's at that point that he gets approached here by these Jewish elders. The centurion lived at the Roman compound east of Capernaum, close to the upper Jordan, as a matter of fact. So that means Jesus was approached here on the west end, and then the elders had him go farther to the east towards the Roman compound.

So this would be how it lays out on your map that you have on page one. Here's an aerial photograph taken from space looking at the same area showing the Cermon on the Mount, Capernaum, the Roman compound, and Bethsaida. The upper Jordan River here is right behind where Courtney and Ingrid are in this picture. And it's up on that hill just right behind them. is where the Roman compound was located. So it was right there. So Jesus was heading, having come down from that place called the Mount, which is below sea level, then through Capernaum and then towards this place right behind where Courtney and Ingrid are standing. Right about up there.

So in Luke 7.2 it says, A centurion slave who was highly regarded by him was sick and about to die.

So we'll see several things that are really highly unusual about the centurion. He says he's highly regarded by him. The slave who was deathly sick was highly regarded by the centurion. So this centurion very interestingly regards the slave highly and we find from the account in Matthew that the slave was young. There it calls him just a boy, so he was a young slave. And so that's very curious that this centurion takes care over this young slave boy. From the words of Dr. Luke, it seems like this man is an extraordinary slave to have been highly regarded.

The typical behavior, and it became kind of a public joke, was for slaves to get away with doing as little as possible. It would actually be a fairly frequent theme in a lot of the comedies and things like that that were done in the theaters. The slave would try to get away with doing as little as possible, doing very little, and then looking busy when the owner came in. And that would be the typical thing.

This slave must have been extraordinary in that he was a faithful servant whether the centurion was there or not. From Matthew's account, we find that he's young, called a boy there. For a Roman centurion, however, to highly regard a slave, that was extraordinary.

And we'll get back to that theme. So this was an extraordinary slave and also an extraordinary centurion, as we'll find out increasingly as this goes on. This was no ordinary centurion. And we are soon to find out even more about the heart of this centurion. He continues to reveal an amazing heart and one, as we'll see, very counter to the culture.

Now Luke's a medical doctor and he doesn't get specific as to what the illness is here. Luke is recording this not as an eyewitness, but as someone who has talked to eyewitnesses and gathered accounts very carefully received. However, in those days, the technology was not so great. Even today, with today's medical technology, we can come across things that are really challenging. But in those days, it was even more challenging, and a lot of times, there was little that could be done. And Dr. Luke knew this. He was aware of that.

Jesus healing, however, had a 100% cure rate. Says, hey, I'll go for that, right? No percentages here in terms of fractions, 100%. And I think you can put the decimal points behind it, too. The centurion is going to reveal his faith in Christ's ability to heal his highly regarded slave, even at a distance.

That's very interesting because we don't find that much of that. Really, if you ponder it, a lot of people could have just come to Jesus and said, hey, I've got my aunt over here. Can you heal her from where you are right now? Actually, people could have done that, but that's not what they typically did.

This centurion, however, is quite an extraordinary man. Luke 7, 3-5, it reads this way, When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders asking him to come and save the life of his slave. That's very interesting. He sent some Jewish elders. Let's go on to verses 4 and 5, And when they came to Jesus, they earnestly implored him, saying, He is worthy for you to grant this to him.

For he loves our nation, now this is really something, he loves our nation and it was he who built us our synagogue. Whoa! Now this is really an extraordinary Roman centurion. Now, the centurion had heard about Jesus. The centurion had contact with Jewish elders for a reason we'll see in this very passage here. He had been the one to fund the synagogue construction for the Jews of the town of Capernaum. Now that is really extraordinary. Jesus had taught in that synagogue. We saw that earlier in Luke.

Mark also records it in chapter 1. verses 21 to 34 he had cast a demon out of a man in that synagogue and right nearby right nearby where that synagogue is located he healed Peter's mother-in-law of a fever right near the synagogue what you have there is the synagogue is the white building in the lower part of the picture and that synagogue was actually constructed later We'll take a closer look here. And then Peter's house is the one that's closest there to the shore. So it's a very short distance. Very short distance.

So Jesus had taught in that synagogue. He'd cast a demon out of a man in the synagogue. He had gone right nearby and had healed Peter's mother-in-law very shortly after the synagogue service. So there's Peter's house. Then Jesus healed and cast out demons until the sun went down. And what's interesting is this is on a Sabbath. And what do the Jews think of healing on a Sabbath?

Wait a minute! That's not one of our exceptions? You can't do that! Right? We've got our laws and our rules and that's not a part of it. You can't do that. You can't heal people. So Jesus, his response was heal and cast out demons as much as you can. Just heal and heal and heal and heal and cast out demons and then heal and heal and heal quick before the sun goes down and Sabbath is over. So that's his response.

So what do the Jewish elders do? And these may have been elders who were head over this very synagogue where he taught, where he had cast the demon out of the man, and we walked out of the synagogue and went then into Peter's mother-in-law's house, and then right there in Capernaum just kept healing and healing and healing. These elders may have been the elders over this very synagogue, very familiar with everything that Jesus had done.

They didn't just casually ask, hey, would you consider it? Would you, you know, think about it? Let us know. No, instead, they earnestly implored him. Earnestly implored him. Begged him. You must come. You've got to come. And so what we see here is they make this request very seriously. and there's a good reason why they were willing to do this this guy is a Roman centurion and usually the Jews spoke in very negative terms about the Romans they would speak in very negative terms they would refer to the Romans as filthy pig-eating Romans they would call them dogs and not a nice pet dog but another term for a mangy mutt, a wild pack dog. And so they would usually refer to them in negative terms. The Roman soldiers were often drawn in to enforce tax collections. You might have a tax collector with one or two Roman soldiers alongside him in case there's any resistance to paying your taxes. It was so bad that though the Jews were forbidden to tell a lie, it was allowable to lie to a Roman tax collector, even if a soldier was standing there. So for these elders to have a high regard for this centurion was very exceptional. But we'll see there's good reason for it.

He loves our nation. And by the way, if it means anything to you, he agape loves our nation. Isn't that amazing? He agape loves our nation. This centurion was an extraordinary man indeed. Instead of being a, you know, hey, I'll be cruel to you and I won't think twice about it. This guy actually loved the people of Israel. The centurion himself loved the nation of Israel.

This is no ordinary centurion. Capernaum was a poor fishing village of around 1,500 Jewish people. The Roman centurion didn't live in Capernaum. He lived in that Roman compound off to the east. This Roman centurion loved them enough to pay for their synagogue construction. These people possibly couldn't have pulled much together. A little tiny, very simple synagogue is about all they could pull together. But this guy funded it. He says, I will fund construction of synagogue for the people, for the Jews in Capernaum. Here is the synagogue that was built on top of the foundation of the synagogue that this Roman centurion funded. This synagogue here is notoriously hard to date because the architecture looks like it's from around 200 AD.

The coins underneath the floor, however, point more to closer to 500 AD. But it's underneath that that the original basalt Foundation it was laid and that Was the one that? Darker stone was the one that the centurion funded, okay? and so It was right there. It was one that had been used during the time of Christ and The centurion had funded that. It was at least a couple of centuries later, possibly several centuries later, that the top was taken down and a new white stone synagogue built on top.

So this centurion was a God-fearing Gentile. Dr. Luke, who himself was a God-fearing Gentile, who became a Christian believer, So Luke relates to this centurion. It's a God-fearing Gentile. In your study of Acts, you may have come across this term, the God-fearing Gentile. It's in Acts 10. So that's Dr. Luke writing again. Acts 10, 22, 13, 43, and twice in chapter 17, verses 4 and 17. So this God-fearing Gentile, and Luke is one of them, is something that Dr. Luke would understand. This centurion is one of those. He is a God-fearing Gentile. And the Jews, though they didn't recognize them as Jews, they weren't, they respected the God-fearing Gentiles.

And so this centurion was well regarded, and especially one that would come and fund our synagogue. and have these elders say it's just extraordinary he loves our nation that was just wow stunning stunning difference so here's Luke 7 6-8 now Jesus started on his way with them so he went through Capernaum and Capernaum is little because all the houses are little but about 1,500 people densely packed He started on his way after passing through Capernaum and then heading east towards the Roman compound. So he's going towards the Roman compound towards the upper Jordan. And when he was not far from the house, so he'd gone most of the way after coming down off the mountain and being met there at the west end of Capernaum, going through Capernaum and going east towards the compound. And when he was most of the way there, The centurion sent friends saying to him, now this is very interesting, first he sent the Jewish elders to see if Jesus would come and it sounds like somebody was running ahead of Jesus who was traveling with the group in a crowd and by the way I don't think they did a very good job of showing a crowd here.

In this picture, but nonetheless So so the centurion gets word that Oh Jesus is coming and he's just about here and he sends his friends out and They say to him Lord do not trouble yourself further for I am NOT worthy for you to come under my roof I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof and I For this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you." Oh! This is an incredible centurion.

But just say the word and my servant will be healed. I'm not worthy to have me come to you. That's why I sent the elders. I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof. But I do believe that you will just say the word from wherever you are and it'll be done.

And then he goes in verse 8 and makes a comparison with his own position. For I also am a man placed under authority. Whose authority? Under the authority of Rome, with soldiers under me. And I say to this one, go. And he goes. And I say to another, come. And he comes. And to my slave, do this. And he does it. I understand being under authority. And I also understand that I have authority. And so do you. Right? So, wow, what a man this guy is.

The centurion did not want to trouble Jesus with coming to his house, which would have been a Gentile household. And the traditional Jewish objection is you don't go into a Gentile household. Now, Dr. Luke is going to record in Acts 10, right? What happens to Peter? He goes to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile.

Also a God-fearing Gentile, okay, so here's Cornelius Acts chapter 10 Very similar to this guy But the centurion didn't want to trouble Jesus And he also didn't want to have the possible offense that Jesus being a Jew Might object to even stepping into a Gentile household Where they eat bacon and stuff like that, right? Okay So the centurion was also humble, not counting himself worthy to have Jesus come into his house, and even not counting himself worthy to go to Jesus personally and directly. This is an amazing centurion. The centurion also recognized Jesus' ability to heal a slave from a distance. You don't have to be here. You don't have to come here. You can heal from a ways away. I believe that.

The centurion recognized Jesus' ability to heal from a distance, but finally he also recognized Jesus' authority as a man himself of earthly authority. So this is a remarkable, and that's probably an understatement, this is a very remarkable centurion. Here's Luke 7, 9. Now when Jesus heard this, he marveled at him, and turned and said to the crowd, and that's why I say they don't have enough people there, turned to the crowd that was following him, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith. In all of Israel, who has great revelation, you've got the temple here, you've got all kinds of things, I have not found in all of Israel faith like this.

Extraordinary faith. Now Jesus' progress had likely been slow because when you get a crowd and people are going along slowly and getting in the way and wanting, you know, heal me, heal me! Thirst! Now! Slow down, I want to talk to you! You know, those kinds of things. So his progress was probably slow. Jesus used the moment, however, for the benefit of his disciples and the crowd that was following him. Because they, in the words of the friends, could tell this was an extraordinary man. This was an amazing man.

So Jesus marveled aloud, not just privately, marveled aloud so all could hear that this God-fearing Gentile had expressed a quality of faith Jesus had not seen among any of the people of Israel not even his own disciples amazing so Luke 7.10 when those who had been sent returned to the house they found the slave in good health already healed I'm fine just like with Peter's mother-in-law here she was with a fever feeling terrible just burning up and then instantly She feels great, and she's ready to serve, you know, Jesus and anybody else who's alongside. The slave? I feel great! Never better, right? Never better.

Jesus did heal the slave from a distance, just as the centurion believed that he could. It's interesting, it sounds like Jesus would have actually gone to the house, and would have gone in, but instead, He was willing to heal from a distance because the Centurion believed that he could. By the time that the Centurion's friends had gotten back to the Centurion's house, which wasn't that far because he'd gone most of the way, the young slave had already been restored to good health. I am feeling fine, he says, right?

Now, this was a counter-culture centurion. I don't mean he's a hippie, right? But, the culture had told the centurion not to highly regard slaves, but to hold them in low esteem. That's the message of the culture. Is that what the centurion did? No. He highly regarded the slaves. So he says, I don't care what the culture says, The right thing to do is to regard the slave highly, even though he's a slave. The culture also taught the centurion to shun humility.

It was thought in the Greek and Roman cultures that humility was a character defect. This is why you often see, in reading through the New Testament letters, the Apostle Paul and others, Peter. Writing urging humility because humility was thought as something bad in the Roman and Greek cultures Humility was a character defect and yet this centurion multiple times showed humility I'm not worthy to have you Jesus in my house, and I'm not worthy to even go to you myself and Ask for this favor That was extraordinary. We have record multiple times and places that the rest of the culture would have been exactly the opposite, asserting authority.

The culture also conveyed to the centurion that he must assert his authority and a right under Roman law to compel Jesus to come to his house if he wished Jesus to come. Some of the ways that shows up in Roman law there was a segment of of rights For soldiers and some of the ways it shows up remember Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and Matthew talks about you know if a soldier Compels you to carry his things for a mile go another So a Roman soldier had that privilege in Roman law to compel somebody you're going to carry my stuff for a mile right and So the Roman soldier could do that Another way it showed up.

Remember here's Jesus. He's carrying the cross piece what's called the petibulum, okay, and he stumbles and falls and So what do the soldiers do? they grab a bystander Simon of Cyrene and Under the Roman laws same set of laws You carry his cross and Simon of Cyrene if he refused and The Roman soldier could run him through with the sword. So he's going to carry his cross, the cross piece. He's going to do it. That's the set of Roman laws. This same set of Roman laws would allow the centurion to order Jesus to come to his house.

He didn't do that, but instead went the other way and said, I'm not worthy to have you under my roof. I'm not even worthy to come and ask you to do this. And while I have the authority under Roman law to compel Jesus on penalty of death to come to my house, I won't do that. I won't assert the right that I most certainly have.

He was also a counter-culture centurion because the culture had sent the centurion the message that it was just fine to hate or be indifferent towards the Jews. We have a record throughout the Roman Empire of the Jews being badly treated. One of the examples again comes out of the book of Acts where Claudius kicked the Jews out of Rome. No, all Jews, all Jews got to get out. badly treated other places, they would, you know, mistreat and torture Jews in various cases, and treat them very cruel. It was fine to be cruel to them, dishonest with them, to take money from them, as a soldier, under threat of sword, make false claims, all that was fine in the culture.

This centurion, however, was very different. Instead of treating the Jews with hate or indifference, the Jewish elders themselves could say, He loves our nation. This is a very counter-culture centurion. We're not done. The culture had also communicated to the centurion that the authority of Rome was of utmost importance. There was no authority higher than that of the Roman government. If you ain't Roman, you ain't nothing, right? So the culture had Rome as the authority, and he makes reference to that. But he recognizes Jesus' greater authority than Rome. That is very extraordinary for a Roman centurion.

And finally, faith was to be placed in the emperor. Do you know what they called the emperor? Lord and Savior. Lord and Savior. This centurion was willing to recognize Jesus for who he was. He was willing to place his faith in him above that of Rome.

Question here is the centurions character all these counterculture things similar to what is called for among Christians What we find we just went through are all the ways in which this centurion was counterculture What we find is every aspect of character we see in this centurion that's counter to the culture It's called for among those of us in the body of Christ He showed humility So what does Paul, writing to Gentiles again and again, urge? Humility.

And instead of, you know, I'm going to put me at the top of the heap, to consider others ahead of yourself. One reason we can easily find those kinds of exhortations in the New Testament letters is that those were the qualities opposite of what the culture taught. So Christians had to be taught about humility. They had to be taught about considering others ahead of yourself. Because that was not what the culture told people.

So the New Testament frequently has those same character qualities as being taught and urged among the Christians. Christ is the example of those character qualities Himself, and He is the life within us. I have here from Philippians 2, 3 through 8 on your handout on page 3. It says, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, which is what the culture would teach you, but with humility of mind, this is lowliness of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves.

That's what this centurion is doing. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. As the centurion was doing, he said, I care about this slave. A lot. I regard this slave highly. Have this attitude in yourselves, have this mindset in yourselves, There was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. That word grasped means to be retained at all costs, or to be held on to at all costs. But emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and made in the likeness of men, Jesus could have said, you know, I don't want to do this going to earth thing and being born of Mary and, you know, having everybody, you know, harass me.

And then I finally ended up with having them nailed. No, it's a little bit much. I think I don't want to do that. It's going to be at very least really uncomfortable. Right. And at moments painful. So no, I think I'd rather not. He said, after all, I've got it great here in heaven. I enjoy fellowship with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Everything's great. I've got angels who do what I say. It's great. I really don't want to do this.

No. Christ, however, though he could have held on to all the privileges of deity, said, no, I'm going to humble myself to become in the form of a man. Did he lose his deity? No. But he let go of the privileges of deity for a time. For you and for me. That's the example that we have. Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. That horrible, awful death reserved for the worst of the worst. So we have Christ as an example of humility, like this centurion, but we also have an empowerment.

For through the law, Paul writes, I died to the law so that I might live to God. First thing, you know it's interesting, before Christ can live in and through you, we've got to get this law thing taken care of. I died to the law so I might live to God. That tells me if I keep holding on to the law, it's going to diminish my living to God. You see that? If I keep holding on to the law, it's going to diminish my living to God.

And now the next, verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ. When He died, I died with Him. It's no longer I who do the living, but Christ does the living in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me."

The character qualities we saw in that centurion are both exampled by Christ and carried out in the life of the believer by Christ's indwelling power in life, His life. It's He who does the living within us. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that as we look at this centurion, extraordinary man, just a remarkable man, we see virtues there that stand way apart from the culture, very contrary to the culture, but most certainly reflect Christ's very character. And Lord, we also see that Christ is an example of that humility that the centurion displayed. And we also see that we have, by your accomplishment, a separation from the law and an empowerment to live life by the very life of Christ, both example and indwelling. We thank you for that, that all of which you've accomplished because you love us and care for us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.