A Lesson in Humble Submission

Luke chapter 7, that's in the New Testament,

Luke 7 · chapter mention

kind of toward the back half of your Bible, toward

the front of the New Testament, Luke chapter

Luke 7:1–10

7, verses 1 through 10. Perhaps some of you have

heard this story, and maybe some of you have

not heard this story. It's a story about a centurion,

that's a Roman soldier, and a slave that he had

that was very sick, and that's what we're going

to talk about. Luke chapter 7, verses 1 through

Luke 7:1–10

10. We'll read through the verses, then we will

pray. When he had concluded all his sayings and

the hearings of the people, he entered Capernaum.

Now the he here is Jesus. We're talking about

Jesus. Verse 2. A centurion's slave, who was

highly valued by him, was sick and about to die.

When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent

some Jewish elders to him requesting him to come

and save the life of his slave. When they reached

Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly saying,

He is worthy for you to grant this because he

loves our nation and has built us a synagogue.

Jesus went with them and when he was not far

from the house, the centurion sent friends to

tell him, Lord, don't trouble yourself. Since

I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.

That is why I didn't even consider myself worthy

to come to you. But say the word and my servant

will be cured. For I too am a man placed under

authority. Having soldiers under my command.

I say to this one, go. And he goes. And to another,

come. And he comes. And to my slave, do this.

And he doesn't. Jesus heard this and was amazed

at him. And turning to the crowd following him,

he said, I tell you, I have not found so great

a faith even in Israel. When those who had been

sent returned to the house, they found the slave

in good health. Let's pray. God, we come to you

today and we thank you for the freedom and the

privilege to come and together and to... fellowship,

dear Lord, and to praise you and to hear your

word. I pray, God, that your Holy Spirit would

be upon us today in a mighty way. God, you know

where we are in life. You know our struggles

and our stresses and our sins and our pains.

God, you know that we need you more than anything,

and I pray, God, that you help us to know that

today. God, I pray that you free us from the

distractions and the worries and the thoughts

of the world. I pray that you would, dear Lord,

help me to preach and teach in a way that's going

to bring glory and honor to you, that you take

away any pride or any nerves that I have, dear

Lord, and that your Holy Spirit would speak through

me to each one of us, God. I pray that your word

would do a work in our life today, that we would

seek you, that maybe there are some in this room

today, God, that do not know you. I pray today

that you would just work on them, dear Lord.

I pray that we would just experience your presence

and your love and your grace through these words.

And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

This is a short and simple story. Jesus did many

healings, and of course, word got out. really

quickly you got somebody that's driving out demons

and healing people and jesus is making his way

from town to town and and doing what the lord

had sent him to do and he's making his way into

capernaum here we see in this story And much

like many of the other places that Jesus stopped

and visited and healed people, people would come

to Jesus or they would sin for Jesus because

they would want healing in their life, or in

this case, in the life of someone that they love.

And the main character of this story is a...

Centurion. And it's important for us to realize

who this character is. Now, of course, Jesus

encountered many people. Jesus was a Jew himself,

and he tried to minister to many Jews and to

preach and teach to them. Sadly, there were many

of the Jews, the people who should have been

looking for Jesus, that those were the ones who

often rejected his words and rejected the things

that he did. But here we have a Gentile, a Roman,

a centurion. A man that would have had a little

power and a little wealth, but nonetheless, he

recognized who Jesus was, maybe in a more powerful

way than any of the rest. He had a slave that

was very sick, and he highly valued this slave.

And so when Jesus came into the area, this centurion

sent word. He sent word by some Jewish elders.

He sent word to Jesus, and they came to Jesus,

and they said, look, Jesus. We know this guy,

this Roman centurion, he's got a slave who's

very sick and he sent for you and he requests

that you would come and heal him. And what did

they say? They said, and he is worthy. And the

centurion is worthy. Jesus, you need to come

and do what he's asking because he's worthy of

you to respond to his request. And the reasons

that they gave that we saw in this passage were

one, he likes the Jews. He's somebody who likes

the Jews, and he helped build us a synagogue.

He helped build us a church. So Jesus, if there's

anybody who's worthy of you to respond and help

them in their life, it's this guy because he's

done the good things, the things that we think

are good. Now let's think about that for a second.

Do we ever fall into that trap? Do we ever fall

into that trap as though that we think we are

worthy of the love of God based on what we have

done, based on the good works that we do? And

we have to be careful not to fall into that trap

because we can get this mindset that if I do

these good things for God, then God is going

to do these good things for me. And so it's a

give and a take. I'll do my part and God will

do his part. If I've done good, then God's going

to do good to me because of what I've done, because

I'm worthy because of my acts. We have to be

careful not to fall into that kind of trap. This

is human nature. This is kind of the way we work.

We kind of understand this concept, right? If

you're married, maybe you've seen this scene

before. Maybe you're a man, you get home, and

your wife's got your favorite meal cooked. Boy,

you eat that meal. She's got a big old chocolate

cake here for you. You get through with your

chocolate cake. And she says, let me give you

a massage on your shoulder. Oh, you're tight.

You must be stressed. And she does all that.

And in the middle of that, she says, you know,

I've been thinking. There's this new purse that

I've been wanting. Would you mind if I bought

it? It costs a little. It costs kind of a lot.

Would you mind? So we understand this idea of,

okay, I've done some good, so therefore I'm worthy

to get some good back. And you men don't laugh

too hard. You do that too, right? You get your

wife some flowers. You go to her work. You take

her the flowers. You say, hey, come pick up your

car, babe. I'm going to wash your car. I'm going

to take you to your favorite restaurant tonight

where you like to eat. You get her out there.

You get her on a nice meal. You get her a good

dessert. And you say, you know, there's this

new gun I've been wanting to buy. You know, I

was thinking I need a new boat. And I'm worthy

of it because look at the good I've done, so

therefore I'm worthy to receive the good that

you're going to do to me. And that was the mindset

of these Jewish elders. They went to Jesus and

they said, Jesus, this dude is worthy because

look at the good things that he's done. But we

have to be careful not to fall into that trap

because we can fall into that trap and we can

begin to treat the grace of God like our bank

account. Does everybody in here know how a bank

account works? You have to put money into it

to get money out. And so as long as you've been

putting a lot of money in there, it's okay to

make some big purchases or even small purchases

every once in a while. But when you ain't got

nothing in there, you've got to put some more

in. And somehow we kind of try to juggle this

same idea with God. We say, well, God, I've been

doing all these good things, and I put a lot

of money in there, and I bought a sleeping bag,

and I helped make a shoebox. And so even though

I did this little sin, God, it's okay. It'll

take a little bit out of my account, but I've

got enough in there because I've been building

up. And sometimes we begin to treat our relationship

with God as though that we can earn His grace

and that God is happier with us when we've put

more in than we've taken out. And as long as

our balance... as in the positive, we're okay.

We can do a little bad, but it's okay because

we're worthy of God because we've done more for

Him than we've done bad. But that's not the way

it works. Sometimes we think the opposite. Sometimes

we think, man, I've done a lot bad lately. I've

really been blowing it these last couple months,

so I'm going to have to do good for the next

few months. I'm going to have to get my balance

back up in the green. It's in the red. But that's

not how God's grace works. That's not how it

works. It's not like we can do all the good we

can do so that God will wink at us when we do

a little sin and say, Ah, it's okay. I saw all

the work you did last year for the church. It's

okay. That's not how the grace of God works.

We are always in the negative. Our sin has put

us in the negative. And there are no amount of

good works that you and I can do to earn the

grace of God. We cannot do it. We are not worthy.

We may think ourselves worthy. People may think

that we're worthy. People may tell us that we're

worthy. Sometimes people do. Something good will

happen to you and they'll say, you deserve that.

You do so good in this and you do so good in

that. You're such a good person. You deserve

that. But we're not worthy of the grace of God.

Grace is something that we are not worthy of.

That's the definition of the word. It's something

that is given to you that you have not earned,

that you do not deserve. That there is nothing

that you have done to be made worthy of the grace

of God. And there's nothing that you can do to

earn it. And the centurion recognized this. There's

nothing we can do to earn the grace of God. And

when we have this mindset and this attitude that

I've done bad, I've got to do more. I've got

to work harder. I've got to do more work for

the Lord. When we have that mindset, we need

to stop right there and we need to say, God,

I'm not going to trust in my works to earn your

grace. I'm going to trust in the work of Jesus

Christ. That's where we get grace from. It's

through Jesus Christ who died on a cross that

we could be forgiven. Not by our works. We've

done nothing to earn it and deserve it. But Jesus

Christ, the Son of God, has given his life on

a cross so that you and I could be forgiven.

And that work that he did is a perfect work.

So we're not worthy of the love of Jesus Christ.

But because of the grace of God, Jesus Christ

loves us even though we are sinners. So these

Jewish elders, they come and they say, Jesus,

look, you need to come do this thing that this

guy wants to do because he's worthy of you to

do it because he's done some good things. So

therefore, you need to come do a good thing for

him. And so it says Jesus went on his way with

them. He began to go to the centurion's house.

And before they got to the centurion's house,

something weird happened. Now, he had sent for

this guy to come. The centurion had sent for

Jesus to come, and Jesus gets close, and now

the centurion sends some of his other servants

out, and he says, hold up right there. Here's

what the centurion says. He says, look, don't

come into my house. And you know what the centurion

says? He says, I am not worthy. That's exactly

the opposite of what the Jewish elders said.

They said, look, Jesus, come on, this guy's worthy.

But the centurion, he knew he wasn't worthy.

He said, Jesus, don't come to my house. I didn't

even come to see you because I'm not worthy of

you, Jesus. But I know who you are, Jesus. I

know of your authority. I am a man of authority,

and I know of your authority. And I know that

if you just speak, then what you say can be done.

So Jesus, don't come near me because I'm not

worthy, but please just speak the word. Now this

centurion guy, he was a pretty smart guy because

he recognized who Jesus was. He recognized the

authority of Jesus Christ. He recognized the

power of Jesus Christ. He knew that he was not

worthy of Jesus Christ because he recognized

who Jesus was. What a beautiful, beautiful scripture

for us to think about this morning. Do we recognize

the authority of Jesus Christ? Do we recognize

who Jesus is? He is the Son of God. Jesus says

that all authority in heaven and earth have been

given to Him. And this centurion, this Gentile,

Man, Israel, of all people, the Jewish people

should have known this truth. They should have

been the ones rejoicing in Jesus Christ. They

should have recognized the authority of Jesus

Christ. And so many of them missed it. But here's

this guy, this Gentile, this Roman centurion,

and he has recognized the authority and the power

of Jesus Christ. And he's also recognized where

he stands in relation to Jesus Christ. You see,

our worth is not determined by what the world's

standard is. Our worth, whether we're worthy

of Jesus Christ, is determined by what God's

standard is. And what God's standard calls us

to are things that we fail to live up to. And

by God's standards, we are unworthy. When we

realize that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the

world, that Jesus Christ is the ultimate judge,

and we recognize that he holds all authority,

then we have to recognize that we hold no authority

and that we are unworthy of his love, and this

Gentile man recognized that. Now, we can tell

pretty quickly how much we respect somebody's

authority by how much we live in obedience to

what they say. It's true of just regular everyday

laws. How much do you respect the authority of

the law? Okay, speed limit says 55. Do you go

55? Well, if you go 55, you probably respect

that authority. Maybe you go 60. Okay, you respect

it a little bit, but not completely. You start

going 150 everywhere, well, you don't have much

respect for authority. You can tell how much

you respect somebody's authority by how obedient

you are to their commands. Now let's look at

our life in Jesus Christ and all the commands

and instructions that Jesus calls us to. Do we

live in obedience to that? Maybe you do. Praise

the Lord. Maybe you don't. Maybe you start looking

at the Scripture and you see all the things that

God calls us to, all the commands of Jesus, and

you say, wait a minute, Jesus says love our enemies

and pray for those who persecute us. I don't

do that. Jesus says don't do this. Well, I do

that. Pretty soon, if we start going down that

list, we might not like our answers. We might

find that we don't respect the authority of Jesus

Christ at all. It's easy to tell if we respect

the authority of Jesus Christ because we will

listen to and follow his commands and live in

obedience to him. This centurion got it. This

centurion recognized the greatness of Jesus.

He knew just how unworthy he was to be in the

presence of Jesus. And he said, Jesus, I know

who you are and I know that you're unworthy,

but I know your authority, so I just call on

you. And Jesus says, I have not seen such a faith

in all of Israel. The man had faith in Jesus

Christ. And that faith was born out of humility

and submission. that he humbled himself before

Jesus. He didn't run out and say, Jesus, I love

the Jewish people, and I helped build a synagogue,

so thank you for coming. Come on in. I'm worthy

of what you're about to do. He didn't say that.

Instead, when Jesus Christ came, the Son of God,

he humbled himself before him, and he submitted

himself to him. And Jesus said, this man has

faith. This is the beginning of faith. There

has to be some humility, I believe, before we

can come to faith. Because without humility,

we're doomed to think that we can somehow save

ourselves. That somehow we have the power and

we have some authority in our life to change

things in our world and in our life. But we don't.

We're just hopeless and helpless sinners. And

what God wants us to realize more than anything

is that all authority has been given to Jesus

Christ. And He is our Savior and He is our hope.

And faith comes when we, like the centurion,

will humble ourselves and say, Lord Jesus. I

come to you broken and tattered and torn, a sinful

man, a sinful woman, and I'm not worthy of you

today, Lord Jesus, but I humbly come before you.

And that's exactly what the centurion did. He

humbled himself before Jesus. And Jesus says,

I have not seen so great a faith in all of Israel.

And all the people who should have known about

the Messiah, who should have been waiting for

the Messiah, who should have known by the words

that Jesus said and John the Baptist said and

the scriptures that they would have had to read,

of all the people who should have known the Messiah

and been looking for the Messiah and when Jesus

came onto the scene should have said, this is

the Messiah. And some did. Some Jews did. But

there were many Jews that saw Jesus and failed

to recognize him and did not put their faith

in him. And it says in the scripture that Jesus

was amazed. He was amazed. Hear this Gentile

man. He recognized the authority of Jesus and

submitted to him while so many in Israel did

not. Jesus was amazed at this man's response.

You know, only two times in scriptures is Jesus

amazed. Two times. And both times that Jesus

is amazed is really the same thing. Now, if you

go back and look in Luke chapter 4 and in Mark

Luke 4 · chapter mention Mark 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6, you'll see this story. Go back and

read those chapters this week. Mark 6, Luke 4.

Jesus goes back to Nazareth. That's where he's

from. and he begins to teach these people and

to preach to these people, and it says of the

crowds that they are amazed at what Jesus is

saying, that they are amazed at the things that

he's speaking and the things that he's doing,

that they are blown away. But then you know what

it says right after that? It says, we're amazed

at who Jesus is. He's so great. He's so awesome.

But he's just Carpenter's son. He's nothing special.

And you know what it says that they said about

him? It says that the crowds in Nazareth, the

Jewish people there, were offended by him. Not

because of the words that he said, but because

of his background. They failed to listen to what

he said. They were amazed by it one minute, but

then they said, well, there's nothing special

about this guy. He's just a local guy. He's just

a carpenter's son. There's nothing special about

him. And it said they were offended by him, so

much so that they drove him out of town to hurl

him off the side of a cliff. They were going

to kill him. One minute they were amazed at his

words, but they just could not bear to trust

him and listen to what he had to say, and instead

they decided they wanted to kill him. And you

know what Jesus said in that passage? In Mark

Mark 6:6

chapter 6, verse 6, Jesus was amazed at their

unbelief. He's the only two instances in all

of Scripture where Jesus is amazed. One is here

in the story of the centurion where he was amazed

at his faith. And the other was for his own people,

the Jewish people, the people of Israel. And

Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith. The

very people who should have known Jesus and had

faith in him didn't. And here this Gentile centurion,

who probably didn't know the scriptures very

well, yet had heard of Jesus, recognized the

authority and power of Jesus, and had faith in

him. And in both instances, Jesus was amazed.

The question that we have to answer today, it's

which of those crowds are we going to be? Which

of those characters? Are we going to be the...

Are we going to be the ones in Nazareth that

hear the word of Jesus and are intrigued by it

and even amazed by it, but yet refuse to listen

to him and follow him? Or are we going to be

like the centurion? Are we going to be one who

hears of who Jesus is, who sees the power of

Jesus at work? Are we going to humbly submit

ourselves before him for the forgiveness of our

sins? Perhaps Jesus is still amazed today. I

don't know. Maybe he's amazed today when some

come to him. Maybe he's even more amazed when

there are others who have heard the gospel, who

have heard of his love, who have experienced

it in some small way, and yet they still decide

to reject him. Now, I don't know where you are

in life. As humans, We fall into that trap of

trying to make ourselves worthy of God's love,

of maybe trying to convince ourselves that we

have done enough. But I'm going to tell you today,

it's time to stop. It's time to stop trying.

You have not done enough. God is not going to

love you more if you... Put twice as much in

the offering plate. Buy twice as many sleeping

bags. He's not going to love you more for those

outward things. What God wants more than anything

is for your heart. If you want to experience

the love and the grace of God, you'll experience

that when you stop relying on your works and

you start relying on the works of Jesus Christ

crucified and resurrected. There you will find

the grace of God. if you would humble yourself

today before Jesus Christ, if you would repent

of your sins, if you would realize that today

is the day, the time is now, that Jesus Christ

wants to be your Lord and Savior. He didn't die

on the cross because you were worthy. He died

on the cross because you were unworthy. And He

knew that was the only way that your sins could

be forgiven. So who will you be today? Will you

be those in the crowd who hear the words of Jesus

and are offended? Or will you be those in the

crowd that hear the words of Jesus and humble

yourself before him? Let's pray. God, we thank

you for your good words. I pray, dear Lord, that

you be with us this morning. Maybe there are

some here this morning and they have tried to

do it their way and maybe their whole life they

have been trying to earn your favor and thinking

if they just do good enough, it'll all work out.

But God, that's just not true. I pray today,

God, that they would quit striving in an effort

that only is going to leave them worn out and

burdened, dear Lord. I pray today that they would

quit trying to make their wrongs right by their

good deeds. And that they would know this morning

that it is through Jesus Christ crucified that

their sins have been forgiven. God, if they would

just ask in this moment, I pray that they would.

If there are some in this room that do not know

Jesus, young or old, dear Lord, I pray that in

this moment, right now, God, that they would

ask you to forgive them. That they would repent.

That they would stop trying to live by their

way, dear Lord, and start living in obedience

to Jesus Christ. That they would let Jesus be

the authority in their lives. That they would

stop striving, dear Lord, to control their own

destiny because we cannot, God. But through Jesus

Christ, you've promised us peace. You've promised

us an eternity, God. You've promised us forgiveness

and grace. There is no greater... Joy, dear Lord,

than to experience your grace and the joy of

forgiveness. So I pray today, God, that we would

recognize that we are not worthy, but Jesus is.

That we would humble ourselves at the foot of

the cross, God, and ask Jesus to be our Lord

and Savior. God, maybe there are some in here

today, and they're yours, and maybe there's something

that you just brought out to them in this scripture

this morning. Maybe there's something in their

life that's just nagging at them, some sin or

whatever it may be, God. I pray that they would

just humble themselves before you today. I pray,

God, that we would follow the example of this

centurion. That we would recognize, God, that

before Jesus, we are nothing but sinners. But

nonetheless, that he loves us enough that he

gave his life for us. So I pray that we would

live in that truth, rejoice in that truth today.

God, I pray that if there are any who have made

that decision to follow Jesus Christ today and

have humbled themselves before him, I pray that

as we sang, dear Lord, that they would step out

from that pew and that they would walk down front

with me, dear Lord, that they would let it be

known that they have decided to follow Jesus.

And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.