"I Am Able" Matthew 8:5-13 Sunday Morning Worship Service

Well, the Bible is filled with incredible stories of reversal.

All the way back from 1 Samuel chapter 2, when Hannah was elevated and Penaniah was demoted, when God chooses Jesse's son David, and not the strongest son, when Saul is put to shame and Goliath falls and David is elevated.

1 Samuel 2 · chapter mention

This seems to be the way God operates in the world as he takes the strong and makes them weak, and he takes the weak and elevates them through faith in him.

This is typical Yahweh.

This is normally the way he operates.

And so we grow accustomed to it through the pages of Scripture, seeing story after story of great reversals.

And yet, the passage we find this morning, I think, stands out among even all of those stories.

This is the ultimate reversal that we see here this morning.

In a part of Scripture that is filled with miracles that Jesus does.

He raises the dead, he walks on water, he rebukes the storm, he heals a leper by touching him.

This miracle, in my mind, is the most outrageous of them all.

It's astonishing what happens in this paragraph here.

It's astonishing in a way that really introduces us to the unexpected nature of the gospel.

And so as we go through this passage this morning, I want to use that as our outline.

Let me give you four surprising ways the gospel comes into the world.

Four surprising ways the gospel comes into the world.

We encounter this narrative here as Jesus is returning from preaching the Sermon on the Mount.

The Sermon on the Mount is described in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and it really turns the world, religiously speaking, on its head.

It takes all of the cumulative wisdom of Judaism through the 400 years before Jesus' arrival, and it basically shreds it.

The repeated refrain through it is, You have heard it said, you have heard it said, you have heard it said, but I say to you, I say to you, I say to you.

Jesus takes what the Pharisees had taught and discards it.

He does more than discards it.

He basically tells the assembled thousands of people there on the Sea of Galilee that if you follow the Pharisees, you're building your house on the sand and you will be washed away.

Rather, he says, listen to him.

Rather listen to Jesus and build your house on the rock and endure the trials of this world.

And Jesus comes back down from the sermon, and the crowd is stunned.

That's the last verse of Matthew 7.

And you should mark the word Matthew 7, verse 28.

Matthew 7:28

Jesus finished these sayings.

The crowds were astonished.

Mark that word astonished, my friends, because we'll see it in a few verses this morning.

They couldn't believe this.

And so the question that gets raised is does Jesus have the authority to rewrite the law, so to speak?

Does he have the authority to fulfill the Old Testament and to tell you a better way to live?

What happens in Matthew 8 is a series of miracles that are designed to show that Jesus does indeed have that authority.

The first one we saw last week was Jesus changing places with a leper.

Nobody is more despised, nobody is more impure than a leper.

The only thing worse than a leper would be a dead body in the Israelite culture.

And Jesus encounters a leper and actually touches him.

And the leper gets cleansed.

Jesus doesn't get defiled.

Jesus' holiness goes one directional from him to the leper.

And the crowd, of course, is amazed.

And it begins to establish that Jesus is fulfilling the law of Moses as he commands the leper to submit himself to the law of Moses for the time.

But what we see this morning is, if you can believe it, something even more unexpected than a leper.

In the first part of our outline this morning, we're going to encounter the unexpected person.

The gospel comes to an unexpected person.

After the leper, Jesus, verse 5, enters Capernaum.

Now Capernaum is a it's more than a village, but it's not a big city.

It's a town.

And it's on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

It's about an hour or so walk from Tiberias, which is the big city that's along the Sea of Galilee.

But Capernaum is strategic because there's two roads that converge there.

If you were traveling from Lebanon or Syria or Damascus into Israel, you'd come through Capernaum.

You could then go out to the Mediterranean Sea up, you know, past Nazareth and the Valley of Armageddon, or you could continue to follow down the Jordan River and go down towards Jericho, and that's how you'd get to Egypt.

And so basically, if you're traveling from Egypt or anywhere in Turkey to either place, you would be crossing through Capernaum.

This is a very important road.

Capernaum is a strategic city.

It's where those two roads converge.

The Romans were occupying Israel.

They had set their army all over Israel to subdue it, and what they left in Capernaum was a garrison of about a hundred soldiers.

These Roman soldiers were designed to enforce Roman law and keep the peace there.

They were detested by the Jews, as all the Roman soldiers were.

All over the Israelite nation, they despised the Roman presence.

There was no hope for a Roman soldier in the Jewish mind.

Is how they viewed them.

Well, here in Capernaum, a centurion came forward to Jesus, appealing to him.

A centurion is the commander of a hundred soldiers.

He's the one in charge of the garrison in Capernaum.

Now he's not a general.

There's ranks above a centurion.

There's a couple ranks between a centurion and a general.

But he's not, you know, an enlisted man.

There's ranks below.

In fact, a normal centurion would oversee a hundred soldiers.

That's why they're called in our English word centurion, overseeing a hundred.

And the those hundred would be divided broken into divisions with, you know, sergeants overseeing them.

I think the closest American military rank to this in the army or the Marines, you would call this kind of person a captain.

In the Air Force, you would call him Steve.

Because they don't need never mind.

Never mind.

He oversees a hundred soldiers.

He would be really despised.

Nobody would respect him, and nobody would like this guy.

He would be the enemy.

And yet, what you find in Luke's account of this is that the Pharisees and the elders of Capernaum are the ones going to get Jesus to ask him to come help the centurion.

In fact, Luke 7, verse 6 says, quoting the Pharisees and the elders of Capernaum, pleading with Jesus, they say, the centurion is worthy to have you do this for him.

Luke 7:6

He's the one who built us our synagogue.

So here is a Roman centurion occupying Capernaum, who is friends with the Pharisees and the elders of the town.

I mean, you're not going to find a more unlikely alliance than that.

And they say the reason the Pharisees like this guy is because he built the synagogue.

Now, some commentators suggest that this centurion is a Samaritan.

I mean, he's certainly not Jewish.

There's no way a Roman centurion would be a Jew.

But it's possible he was a Samaritan, who, of course, are detested by the Jews in their own right.

He could have been from Lebanon or someplace around there.

He could have even been from Rome, dispatched there and deployed.

Regardless, he's a Gentile, but somehow he has encountered the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Somehow he has become friends with the Pharisees and the elders.

It appears that he's even a convert to Judaism in some sense, as much as the Samaritan could be.

He goes so far as to build the synagogue.

And if you go to Capernaum, the ruins of Capernaum are still there.

You can walk through this synagogue.

Capernaum is where Jesus' ministry was headquartered.

I bet of his three years of ministry, Jesus probably spent two in Capernaum.

The synagogue that was built by this centurion is the synagogue Jesus did much of his teaching in.

So Jesus knows this place.

The centurion apparently, I mean, if you were to read between the lines here, it appears that he built the synagogue as a way to foster an allegiance and an alliance with the Pharisees of the town, with the leaders of Capernaum.

He's thinking here, if I got to be here for a while, I may as well become friends with the people here.

This is very different than the normal Roman military attitude, which would be, you know, forget you.

I'm going to enforce Roman law and don't mess with a Roman soldier.

This guy becomes friends with the Pharisees.

So much so, the Pharisees claim, this is Luke 7, verse 6, the Pharisees are crying out, He is worthy, he is worthy, he is worthy.

Luke 7:6

Now, the full story when you put this together here is this centurion, he has a servant.

Very common in the Roman Empire for a person of like a centurion's rank or higher, some kind of major or even general or a political leader.

Very common for them to have a servant with them.

Usually a boy between ages 11 and 14 or so in that window.

And the boy would be kind of the wingman.

He'd be the in English, you would call him an intern.

He follows this person, he learns the tricks of the trade.

Now, this is one of the genius ways that the Roman Empire was ruling the world.

By having the system in place, it allowed occupied people the opportunity to assimilate into Roman culture.

You know, Rome occupies some other nation there.

They occupied Damascus.

Somebody from Damascus could be, one of the kids could be an intern in the Roman military and then get that rank when they're out or have the opportunity to rise faster through the ranks.

That's what's happening here.

And this centurion is loved by those in Capernaum, and he has this intern with them.

The intern may have even been Jewish, we don't know.

But he's assisting the centurion.

Everybody in town loves these two.

Now that system of the having the children in that environment led to all kinds of horrible and horrific abuses in the Roman Empire.

This appears to be a noble exception.

This servant is loved.

Gospel of Luke calls him a slave, but then later uses the word for a child, and so it seems to be that he's the servant or intern, whatever you want to call it.

The word that Matthew uses here is uh child, it's translated servant, but it's the Python, it's the word for a kid.

The centurion has a servant, a child, an intern, who's lying paralyzed at home, it says in verse six.

Probably not an injury, because then you wouldn't use the word, the rest of verse six, he's suffering terribly.

That implies that he's in this ongoing pain.

Most commentators suggest it's some kind of viral condition that is uh decaying his nerves.

He can't operate his legs, and he's in extreme agonizing pain.

This is a kid.

And the centurion loves this boy and is desperate to have him healed, but the centurion is not gonna go get Jesus.

And this is where Luke really fills in the gaps here.

And what Luke lets you know is the centurion calls for the Pharisees and calls for the elders and asks them to go get Jesus.

So he's playing this straight, so to speak.

He recognizes that he's a Roman centurion, and so he's asking the Jews, hey, I hear there's this Messiah-like figure who's out preaching, the lights out out in the wilderness out there.

He's healing people.

Mark lets you know that this time in Jesus' ministry, the streets were filled with people who were coming to Jesus for healing.

And so the centurion says, Would you go get him for me?

Go to Jesus and ask him to heal my son or my servant.

And the Pharisees do.

And that's what's insane about the story is you have Pharisees and Jewish elders going to ask Jesus for a favor.

It can't get any crazier than this.

Well, it's about to, but it doesn't seem like it can.

When you put the whole thing together, the Pharisees go get Jesus and say the centurion needs your help.

The Pharisees, by the way, are chanting, he is worthy, worthy, worthy.

I mean, is there anything more Pharisaical than that?

Like they do not get Jesus, do they?

Jesus, come help this guy.

He's worthy of your help.

I mean, they do not understand anything about the way Jesus works.

But Jesus agrees to go, and as Jesus is approaching, the centurion comes outside to intercept him and really stop Jesus from coming into his house.

Which is going to lead to this next encounter.

First we saw the unexpected person.

Now we're going to see an unexpected confidence.

The centurion goes outside once Jesus enters Capernaum, verse 5 says, so he's being led there by this entourage.

And the whole crowd is with him, too, by the way.

There's thousands of people in this whole thing.

This would just be a ridiculous sight to behold.

The centurion hears that Jesus is coming to his house and goes outside to him appealing to him.

Jesus says in verse 7, I will come and help him.

Now I think it's better to read verse 7 as a question.

In Greek it comes across as a question.

I know the ESV just puts it as an indicative here.

But verse 8 says the centurion answered or replied.

And so I think it's right to see verse 7 as a question.

The centurion comes outside to intercept Jesus and asks Jesus, you know, Would you help my servant?

And Jesus asks the centurion, What do you want me to do?

Do you want me to come and heal him?

Now you have to appreciate what's behind this question.

Jesus appears to be on his way to the centurion's house.

That would be right up there with touching a leper.

There's no way a Jewish person would go inside of a Gentile house.

If a Jew enters a Gentile house, he's defiled for a week.

He can't go into a Gentile house.

I mean, this would be as scandalous as touching the leper.

In fact, there's no examples in the New Testament of Jesus entering a Gentile house.

As far as we know, it never happened.

Now, I'm not saying Jesus would have been defiled had he gone into a Gentile's house any more than he was defiled by touching a leper.

Of course not.

But the Jews taught that it was defiling.

Jesus never, as far as we know, violated that principle.

He never went into a Gentile house.

He did some of his ministry out of Israel through Lebanon and Syria, and maybe that's when he slept in fields.

We don't know.

Maybe he went into a house.

It's just not recorded.

But here, this is the dilemma.

Jesus is on his way to the centurion's house, which the centurion cannot believe.

That's a bridge too far even for him.

He loves this child, but he cannot ask Jesus to come into his house.

That would be ridiculous.

Plus, Jesus is with all the Pharisees and the elders of the town and thousands in the crowd.

I mean, maybe you've showed up for dinner at your house and you brought a friend or two and didn't let your wife know.

Now imagine showing up for dinner at your house and you brought all of the elders, all of the Pharisees, Jesus, and a thousand spectators.

So the centurion says, this can't happen.

This cannot happen.

And so Jesus asks a very interesting question to him.

What do you want me to do?

Do you want me to come and heal him?

The centurion has really a shocking answer.

The centurion says, Lord?

Notice he addresses him as Lord.

That's shocking on its own, right?

I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof.

Pause real quick.

What were the Pharisees chanting to Jesus on the way there?

Oh, he is worthy, so worthy, Jesus.

You won't find anybody as worthy as this person.

And this person runs out and says, Lord, I'm not worthy.

These guys needed to get their scripts together.

I mean, this guy is coming from a Jewish mindset also.

The stench of works righteous religion is on him, the centurion, because he believes this matters.

He believes that his lack of worth is going to be a hindrance to Jesus coming into his house.

He's adopted, so to speak, the Pharisaical mentality that you have to be good enough to ask something from God, that you have to earn a favor from God.

If there's someone you love who's sick, you need to light candles and say prayers and give money to charity and do good things.

That way God will hear your prayer for your friends.

That is the way so many people think.

That is the way the centurion thought.

That's the way the Pharisees taught.

That is works righteous religion right there.

This idea that for you to get your prayers answered, you need to do good things, and then God will owe you one, so to speak.

I'm sure you're familiar with this.

I'm sure you've encountered people who've been in this kind of situation where maybe their child is sick or or ill and they're they're desperate, and it's so easy for that to creep into their thinking.

And they think, if only I can do enough good things for God, then he will heal my wife.

If only I can do enough good things for God, then he will heal my daughter.

He'll hear my prayer.

And if you're a good person and you've done good things, you should pray for her too.

Maybe you've even got that request from people.

Oh, you're a good person, brother.

You're a good person.

Would you pray for my child?

That's this works righteousness mentality.

It has no place in Christianity.

No place at all.

But it is the way the Pharisees taught, and that's why the Pharisees appealed to Jesus, saying, hey, he's worthy.

And this guy knows he's not worthy.

He sees through it.

The first word's out of his mouth, I'm not worthy.

And by the way, one more thing on this pause.

If you have fallen into this works righteousness trap, if you believe that you can be a good person to be pleasing to God, or that God wants you to be a good person so he hears your prayers, or if you believe that you can go to heaven when he died because you are a good person, or any of that kind of nonsense.

Like if you're just a good person, God will listen to you or be pleased with you.

I want you to be convicted for a second by this centurion.

Because look at what this man has done.

He built their synagogue, and it doesn't make him a good enough person.

I mean, what are you gonna do if you think that God wants you to be a good person for to be received into heaven and you're gonna try to be a good person?

Can you do more than this?

This is to use the Baptist analogy.

This is the example of the guy who pays for the whole church building project and you know names the pews after himself, kind of thing.

The Jesse Fellowship Hall, named after me.

I'm totally a good person.

I paid for the fellowship hall.

That's this centurion.

He paid for the synagogue.

And he says, it's not good enough.

I'm not good enough, Jesus.

But then notice this.

Only say the word, and my servant will be healed.

It's as simple as a word.

Just say it and it will happen.

Well, what does he mean by that?

He describes it in verse 9.

I too am a man under authority.

There's the word right there.

That's the key word in this passage.

Right in the middle of it, that is the key word.

Do you remember what these miracles are doing here in Matthew?

They're here to prove to you that Jesus has the authority to fulfill the law and to give you a different one.

Jesus has the authority to say, you believe eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

Get rid of that.

And replace it with if your enemy punches you in the left cheek, give them your right cheek also.

Jesus has the authority to rewrite your moral code of conduct.

The Jews had all the reasons to make a divorce legitimate.

Jesus says, forget those reasons.

If you get divorced for any reason other than adultery, you are in sin.

And you think, whoa, who has the authority to say that kind of thing?

They taught how as long as you don't have an affair, you're doing okay.

Marriage-wise.

And Jesus said, if you look at someone with lust, you've committed adultery in your heart already.

Look at the last verse in chapter chapter 7.

Jesus was teaching them as one who had, what's the word?

Authority.

Not as their scribes.

And so you get the leper healing, and you have this encounter with the centurion to show you that Jesus does have this authority.

The crowd wasn't hallucinating.

Jesus really does have more authority than they have ever imagined.

And you know who understands that point?

This Roman centurion who says, Jesus, you have the authority.

Just like me, he says, I have authority.

I've got soldiers underneath me.

I say to one of them, go.

And he goes.

Another one, come.

He comes.

To my servant, do this.

He does it.

It's amazing.

We do this passage for family devotionals all the time.

I'm just kidding.

He's saying, listen, I tell my sergeant, get your 10 soldiers lined up.

Let's look at their swords.

And boom, there they are.

I tell this guy, hey, take a patrol around the Sea of Galilee.

There he goes.

Hey, go check on the synagogue.

Make sure the walls are straight.

There he goes.

It's amazing.

They obey right away.

Now notice his argument.

This is from the lesser to the greater.

I do that so easily.

It would be just as easy for you, Jesus, to say, nerve damage, go away.

Disease?

Just leave.

And it'll happen.

With this kind of line, he reduces this traumatic injury or this traumatic disease, cancer, so to speak.

He reduces cancer to the level of, hey, get me a cup of coffee.

It's so easy.

So easy.

I'll tell you, this is an incredible amount of faith to say that.

Recognizing Jesus' authority.

In fact, in a few verses, chapter 8, verse 26, the disciples are going to be in the boat.

There's the storm.

Remember, they're panicking?

And they wake Jesus up, losing their minds, freaking out.

And do you remember what Jesus says to them?

Matthew 8, verse 26, I believe, he says, Woe to you of such little faith.

Matthew 8:26

How do you have so little faith now?

The disciples didn't have this.

I'll tell you what, if the centurion would have been on the boat that night in the storm, wearing the captain's hat, he would have woken up Jesus and said, We got a slight wave issue.

Can you handle it?

This man has so much more faith than the disciples, even.

And this leads to the most shocking part of the story, I think.

When Jesus heard this, he marveled.

That's the same word from the end of chapter 7.

Jesus was amazed at this man.

We are so used to Jesus amazing the crowds.

The crowds hear Jesus, they're amazed.

Jesus wakes up on the boat, rebukes the wind and the waves.

The disciples are amazed.

They're terrified.

They're overcome with astonishment.

They can't speak.

Jesus raises the dead.

People are amazed.

He heals the lame, people are amazed.

He rises from the dead.

People are amazed.

That is the normal response in all four Gospels use this phrase.

That's the normal response to people encountering Jesus.

They get their minds blown, their jaws on the floor, they can't speak.

They don't even have a grid for what they just saw.

This is the only time in the Gospels where it's flipped, where Jesus is astonished at a person.

Here, this centurion, you're meeting the man who surprised Jesus.

This is the one person the Bible says Jesus marveled at.

He was astonished about the unbelief of people.

He couldn't believe how wicked unbelief was.

But here, in the positive sense, this is the only person in the Bible that says stunned Jesus in the silence, so to speak.

This man's faith arrested Jesus.

It's an incredible phrase.

Well, it leads to thirdly, an unexpected salvation.

An unexpected salvation.

Jesus marveled and said to those who followed him, he's turning to the crowd now, and the Pharisees and the elders, the whole group.

Who's he talking to?

I mean, the Pharisees.

Again, this is crazy.

He's looking at the Jewish religious leaders, the synagogue elders, and he's pointing at a Roman centurion and says, This guy has more faith than a lot of you.

I mean, those are fighting words.

I tell you, it's just going to keep snowballing more and more extreme here, just so you know where it's going.

I tell you, many will come from the east and the west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus says, you're going to, in the afterlife, the Jews had this mindset of the kingdom feast, with Abraham, of course, at the head of the table.

He's the father of the feast.

He's the head of the first patriarchy.

All Jews come from him.

Isaac and Jacob, this is the patriarchs.

In heaven, the Jews dreamed of sitting at the table.

And, you know, the Jews, of course, would go to heaven, and how close you sat to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob depended on your own righteousness and your own works.

The more good things you did, the closer you sat to them, so to speak.

Jesus says, there's going to be people from all over the world that are going to sit with them.

Now, in a sense, this is prophesied in the Old Testament, Isaiah 49, verse 8.

Isaiah 49:8

In those days, salvation will go from Israel to the world.

Isaiah 59, verse 19.

Isaiah 59:19

The fear of the Lord will come from the west.

Malachi 1, verse 11.

Malachi 1:11

From the rising of the sun to the setting of the same, my name will be great among the nations.

So the Old Testament says there will be a global presence in heaven.

The Jews thought that that was just because the Jews were scattered around the world.

They get kicked out of Jerusalem.

I mean, that's bad to be an exile, but now you've got people that will come to heaven from Egypt.

Because they're an exile.

Jesus is saying, no, you're not listening.

You're not listening.

Turn it on.

The kingdom feast will be populated from people from all the nations in the world.

I mean, that is a dagger right into the heart of the whole Jewish system the Pharisees had, which all hinged on them being children of Abraham.

Of course they're going to be in the afterlife.

Remember, Jesus tells them this in John 8, and this is you have to believe in me to go to heaven.

And they say, How dare you?

We're children of Abraham.

And Jesus says, Abraham saw my day and rejoiced.

You saw Abraham?

You're not even 50 years old yet, my man.

And he says, Before Abraham was, I am.

You get what Jesus is saying here?

Heaven is going to be filled with people from around the world.

And then, this is the part the Pharisees would fall out of their hats, verse 12.

The sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness.

What's outer darkness?

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This is a phrase used six times in the New Testament that describes hell.

So put this all together.

Jesus points at the centurion and says, He has more faith than all of you.

Then says, heaven is going to be filled with people like the centurion.

And then says the Pharisees and the elders and the children of Abraham, the ethnic children of Abraham, are on their way to hell because they are not rejecting, they're not receiving Jesus Christ.

The sons of the kingdom will be heaved out into outer darkness and replaced with centurions and Gentiles.

This is the language of Romans 11.

The Jews will be broken off and the Gentiles will be grafted in.

Her monitor was bent or something, I don't know, something with a picture on her screen.

You've heard of first world problems.

This was first class problems.

And she's making a big scene, and the flight attendant kicks her off the plane.

Out you go.

Don't make me get the police.

And the pilot comes out and they throw her off the plane.

And then the gate agent comes down with this little scroll the gate agents have.

It looks like a Jewish scroll, you know, and reads through it and looks around and then chooses someone.

You get that seat.

Promotion Sunday for that guy.

This is what Jesus is saying here.

You Pharisees, you who think you're Abraham's children, that you will be at Abraham's table in heaven, you will be thrown out of the plane.

And Gentiles who you wouldn't even dream of will come and sit down at the table.

Well.

The centurion Jesus speaks to him now and says, Go, let it be done for you.

Notice that I think Jesus is being funny here.

Remember what the centurion said earlier?

I tell my servants, go, and they go.

So what does Jesus tell him?

Go.

Okay, you go.

Let it be done for you as you have believed.

Servant was healed at that very moment.

Now I mean, there's a very critical distinction you need to have in this passage.

Jesus is not saying, because you had faith, your son is healed.

And you need to understand that charismatics will take this passage and say that if your son or your wife or whoever is dying, if you have enough faith when you pray, they will be healed.

And so if they're not healed, it's your own lack of faith.

Shame on you.

You should get more faith, and your child would live.

And that is just horrible.

That's not what this verse is teaching.

I mean, sometimes Jesus heals people with faith, sometimes Jesus heals people that don't have faith.

And sometimes, like in this example, he heals people that you know nothing about their faith.

This text says zero about the faith of the child who's healed.

We know nothing about his faith.

Maybe he believed in Jesus, maybe he didn't.

We don't know.

Matthew doesn't care.

The centurion's faith here, the centurion is not going to sit next to Abraham because he believes Jesus can cast out a disease, okay?

The centurion will be sitting next to Abraham in heaven because he recognized his first exchange with Jesus, that Jesus is Lord.

His second exchange with Jesus, that he's not worthy.

He's not worthy for heaven.

He's not.

The third encounter with Jesus, that Jesus has all the authority to do what he's been saying all week long.

That's his faith.

And because of that, his sins are forgiven.

He's not going to heaven because his child is healed.

I mean, that is just silly.

He's going to heaven because he has faith that Jesus has the authority to fulfill the word of God and to forgive people of sins.

How do you know Jesus has that authority?

What proves it?

That he heals the leper, that he heals the centurion's servant.

I mean, the best example of this, you have to understand this, is coming later in Matthew, Matthew 9.

It's in Mark 2, the man who's lowered through the roof, and he's brought to Jesus' feet.

What an I mean unbelievable scene that would be.

And Jesus looks at him, and you know what Jesus tells him?

Your sins are forgiven.

Okay.

That's not why his friends lowered him through the roof.

I'll promise you that.

The Pharisees are apocalyptic at that point.

How dare you?

How who are you that think you can forgive sins?

And Jesus says, so that you know I have the authority to forgive sins.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot.

Pick up your mat and walk.

And that's what's happening here.

So you know that Jesus has the authority to let a centurion into heaven and to break off the Jewish people.

He says, Your child, your servant, your boy will be healed.

What a remarkable picture of grace.

What a remarkable picture of the with the leper, remember the question with the leper was, does Jesus have the willingness to heal?

Obviously, he has the ability.

The leper says, I know you can.

Do you want to heal a leper?

And Jesus says, Yes.

Here it's flipped.

Obviously, Jesus wants to heal the child.

The question is, can he?

Without going there.

And the answer is yes.

He is both willing and able.

We are neither.

We are neither.

But he is willing and able to forgive us of our sins.

I know in a group this size, there must be some people here today who are this unexpected person.

There must be people here today who have never given their life to Christ and don't expect to.

That are here as a guest or here as a friend or here because somebody berated you and made you come.

Listen, it is the unexpected people that can have the most faith.

It is the unexpected people that can surprise even Jesus, so to speak, when they give their lives to him.

Lord, we're thankful that you dispense grace, that you are willing and able.

You do so, of course, because you lived our perfect life.

We can't live a good enough life to be pleasing to you.

You lived it for us.

Beyond that, you atoned for our sins.

You and your own body bore the penalty for our sin.

We're thankful that you gave your life so that we could live.

You lived your life so that we can be righteous.

Lord, we turn to you in faith this morning, thankful that you, because of your death on the cross, vanquish our penalty of sin.

Because of your resurrection from the grave, we too will live with you.

We know we live in a world with suffering and sickness and unanswered prayers.

We're grateful for this global perspective.

This world is temporary.

But heaven, the kingdom feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it is forever.

And through your own grace, we will be there through belief in you.

We're grateful for the clarity of this gospel message.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

You have been listening to Emmanuel with Pastor Jesse Johnson.

You can find more resources like this at ibcva.com.

Here is a parting word from Pastor Jesse.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, iBCBA.com.

If you're not a member of the local church and you live in the Washington, DC area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel.

We're located in Northern Virginia.

And for more information about when and where we worship, check out our church website.

I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.

But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.

Now may God bless you this week.

You speak Jesus constantly.

Serve the Lord faithfully and share the gospel boldly.