Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - Lessons from a Centurion - Luke 7:1-10

We are continuing our series called Luke The Orderly Account of Truth, where Luke

provides his careful examination and investigation into the eyewitness accounts of our Lord's life,

death and resurrection. Last week, Pastor Duncan read through the last handful of

verses in chapter six, where we saw Jesus ask the question, why do

you call me lord Lord and not do what I say? Jesus tells us

that those who call him lord will hear him, they will listen to him

and put his words, his orders, his commands into practice. Those that

do are like a man that built his house with his foundation, dug down

deep and laid the foundation on rock, so that when the storms and the

torrents strike the house, it will not be shaken. But when we hear

Jesus' words and do not listen to them or do not put them into practice,

we're like the man that builds his house without any foundation at all,

and when the storms come, when the torrents strike the house, it collapses.

If we call Jesus Lord, we will bear fruit. If we call

Jesus Lord, we will be obedient, making us like the wise builder.

Ultimately, Jesus is the foundation. When we build ourselves on him. He

does not falter. He is not shaken. He does not collapse when the

torrents strike. Even when we fail, even when we sin, his forgiveness

did not falter. It was not shaken, and it will never collapse because

he finished that work on the cross two thousand years ago. Amen. So

how is your house building this week? My daughter says, good man.

Sometimes my jokes I just need to give up. I won't thank you.

So my sermon today is titled lessons from a Centurion. We're gonna be in

chapter seven of Luke, verses one through ten. First, let's read through

the text, then we'll pray, and then we'll talk about what the lessons

are that we can learn from the centurion. In verse one, chapter seven,

when Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening,

he entered Kapernaum. There a centurion servant whom his master valued highly, was

sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders

of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant.

When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him. This man deserves

to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our

synagogue. So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house

when the centurion sent friends to say to him, Lord, don't trouble yourself,

for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That

is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But

say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am

a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one go,

and he goes. I tell that one come, and he comes.

I say to my servant, do this, and he does it. When

Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and, turning to the

crowd following him, he said, I tell you, I have not found

such great faith even in Israel. Then the men who had been sent returned

to the house and found the servant. Well, let's pray, Lord,

to thank you for gathering all of us here together to learn from and be

changed by the truth of your holy scriptures. I asked you would humble our

heart, is that the words that are written on these pages would fall on

good soil, Lord, that it would produce fruit so that it would produce

humble, grateful, joyful obedience. Lord, we give you all the glory

in your name. Amen. So in this text we are shown an example

of great faith from a centurion and the compassion of Jesus in response to this

man's faith. For context, a centurian was a soldier within the Roman Empire

who was set over and commanded one hundred soldiers, hence the title centurion one

hundred. As a centurion, this man's role Excuse me. This man was

given the role because he had shown that he could be entrusted with the leadership

of the men under his authority and would not waver in the face of defeat.

Centurions were known to be men that would fight to their deaths to defend

their post. Did you get your picture? He's waiting for me to smile.

But the example of this centurion, already known to be of stalwart heart,

leadership, and bravery, unexpectedly displays characteristics that you would not expect to

see from a Roman centurion. So, guys, now, when your wife

or girlfriend asks you how often do you think about the Roman Empire, you

can say at least once today. It's some kind of TikTok trend I don't

know. Let's review verses one through three again. When Jesus had finished saying

all this to the people who were listening, he entered Kaepronom. There a

centurion servant whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die.

The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him,

asking him to come and heal his servant. So here's the first abnormal characteristic

shown by this centurion. He showed great compassion for his servant. That it'd

be one thing if the sick man in question was a soldier under his authority,

that would make sense, because he's responsible for his soldier's welfare. But

this was his servant. This was a slave, a person that would have

been purchased back then, and was there to do whatever the centurion asked of

him. He was completely subject to the will and control of his master.

Now you might read this or hear me say this, and think, Okay,

this centurion is concerned because his servant is a hard worker, and he

has great work ethic and is of great value to him, and that's why

he wants him healed. But if we look deeper into the context of what's

happening here, we see that it's not the case at all. Centurions were

paid roughly between thirty eight hundred and seventy five hundred dinari, compared to a

regular soldier in the Roman Empire who earned a mere seventy five denari and with

today's exchange. And by no means don't take this as gospel, because I'm

not a mathematician, But according to my math, it would have been the

equivalent or close to the salary of a high ranking officer in the US military.

So if this servant's value to the centurion was simply his work or his

work ethic, he could have easily replaced him with one or two more servants

he could afford to do so. And back then it was acceptable to purchase

a person to do your work. The original Greek word used for servant or

slave in this text is paeus, meaning son or child. And additionally,

this servant, whom the centurion valued as a son, was highly favored or

highly regarded, which in the Greek was entemos, the same word used for

distinguished guest at a banquet. So we're not talking about a replaceable servant.

This sick man, while so subject to the centurion's rule and authority, was

highly regarded, thought of, and treated like the centurion's own irreplaceable child.

And this is certainly in contrast to the norm of how servants were regularly treated

and regarded in Greco Roman culture. In fact, Aristotle himself described servants as

living tools, with their masters possessing the power of life and death over them,

and regardless of the centurion's wealth or the cultural norm and expectations, he

showed great concern and compassion towards someone he didn't have to. So the first

thing we can learn from the centurion is, regardless of who you are or

where you come from, you can always show compassion. Regardless of who you

are or where you come from, you can always show parents and adults.

As Christians, we can and should always find a way to show the love

and compassion of Christ, our Lord, with our neighbor and who's our neighbor

everyone kids as Christians. When you're at school or hanging out with friends and

someone is being picked on or excluded because of where they come from, for

being different, for what they look like, it's your role to step up

and be Christ's example of love and compassion. Remember, we have the greatest

reason and example to show christ like love to others, because we know that

while we were still sinners, he died for us. So this centurion,

because of his great compassion toward his servant, seeks the help of Jesus,

where whose news of his miraculous works and healing had reached his ears. Continuing

on in verse three, the centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of

the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When

they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, this man deserves to

have you do this because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.

When they came to Jesus, they oh, sorry, keep that up there,

because I'm gonna go back to it. Yeah, thank you. So

the next abnormal ship rewind. Okay, the next abnormal attribute I made this

hard on myself, and lesson we learned from the centurion is his generosity.

When we look at the word built here and I'm gonna get nerdy again.

In the original Greek, it's used with the pronoun altos a with the third

person singular verb translated to built. It means that he didn't simply commission the

building of their synagogue. He was active in its building, likely funding it

because he was wealthy, and perhaps even putting himself to work in its construction.

Now, again similar to what we read earlier about his concern for a

servant. At first glance, you might read this and think, Okay,

a rich guy paying for a building. There's nothing new here. We've seen

this before. He probably wants his name on a plaque or something. But

it's not the case when you consider the context. This centurion was a gentile

and his case was being pled to Jesus, coming from a group of Jews,

and these two groups typically hated one another, with Jews, especially Jewish

leaders, believing that gentiles were less than or below them in their minds,

were the chosen people of God. What are you so for this centurion to

pay for and work on a synagogue for a group of people that look down

on him is no small act? How many of us would do so much

for someone that looks down on us, or even hates us. Going back

to verse four, when they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him.

This man deserves to have you do this because he loves our nation and

has built our synagogue. And it seems like a really nice report coming from

these Jewish leaders. But if you look closely at it again and you go

to the next slide, it says, this man deserves to have you do

this because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue. Because he's done

X, Y, and Z for us. He deserves this. So these

Jewish leaders aren't pleading with Jesus to come with them because of the Centurion's compassionate

and generous heart. It's because of everything he's done for them. It's not

because of who he is. It's because of what he's done for them.

And so the second lesson we learn from the Centurion, and the first we

learn from these Jewish leaders. I summarize like this, A Christian's generosity is

not contingent on getting something in return. A Christian's generosity is not contingent on

getting something in return. In Hebrews thirteen sixteen, it reads, and do

not forget to do good and to share with others, For with such sacrifices

God is pleased. Now you'll notice that it doesn't say, do good and

share after someone is good to you, do good and share after someone gives

you something. No, as Christians, we're the ones that share first,

without expectation, without invitation, without provocation. We are to be generous because

we know the one that gave everything without receiving anything. I'm gonna say that

again. I don't feel like that landed. We are the ones to be

generous because we know the one who gave everything without getting anything. And when

we're generous, that sacrifice pleases God. Continuing on nu verse six. So

Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion

sent friends to say to him, Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I

do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I

did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. And we're gonna stop

right there in the middle of verse seven. This is a third lesson we

learned from the centurion, which is being humble and acknowledgment of our Lord's greatness.

Being humble in acknowledgment of our Lord's greatness. This centurion's desperation to see

his servant healed drove him to seek Jesus, whom he recognized as Lord.

He was aware of his sinfulness and unworthiness to even have Jesus come under his

roof. He didn't see his need as worthy to trouble Jesus with I think

too often, especially in today's society, we view God with a horizontal mindset,

thinking ourselves as equal with the sovereign creator, instead of having a vertical

mindset where we understand that God is holy and we are not. We all

heard the term pride comes before the fall, and indeed pride came before the

fall. C. S. Lewis wrote in his book Mere Christianity, the

utmost evil is pride, unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all

that are mere flea bites. In comparison, it was through pride that the

devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice. It is the

complete anti God state of mind. It is pride which has been the chief

cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began. In

our pride, we put God on this horizontal level with us. It's our

pride that teaches us to think and act like this. I know better,

I'm good enough, my way is better. I want my way, not

yours. That's our pride talking, that's our horizontal thinking. But when we

humble ourselves and we rightly view God with a vertical understanding, he is holy,

we are not. It spurs this way of thinking and this way of

acting. You know best. You are good. I am not. Your

ways are higher, Your ways are better, and I desire them, not

my own. This centurion recognized that while he was in a position of power

and authority, he considered himself unworthy. He recognized his truly lowly state compared

to Jesus, and he humbled himself instead of asking for Jesus help from a

place of pride because of his earthly position. Continuing on verse seven, the

last half of verse seven, but say the word, and my servant will

be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under

me. I tell this one go and he goes, and that one come

and he comes. I say to my servant, do this, and he

does it. When Jesus heard of this, he was amazed at him,

and turning to the crowd following him, he said, I tell you,

I have not found such a great faith even in Israel. Then the men

who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. So

the final lesson we learned from the centurion is one of great faith in Jesus's

power and authority. He provides an analogy of being under the authority of his

superiors and having authority over the soldiers in his care. He's used to seeing

orders carried out and fulfilled when entrusted to someone in or under authority. We've

seen him rightly declare Jesus as Lord, and he then shows his faith in

Jesus's ability to heal by asking him to heal his servant. He's heard of

the authority of Jesus, the authority he has over life and death, and

with great faith he knew that Jesus could heal the favored servant in his care

with only a single word. And Jesus was amazed by his faith. This

is the kind of faith that he had not seen even in Israel, God's

own chosen people. That's God a hurt hearing that from Jesus, and I

would argue, this is not merely great faith on the part of the Saturian,

but a childlike faith. The greatest and truest form of faith. In

Matthew eighteen, when the disciples are bickering about who would be greatest in the

Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus says he called a little child to him and placed

the child among just bit everywhere, place the child among them, and he

said, truly, I tell you, unless you change and become like the

little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven. Wow. As

my daughter June grows up into a bright and beautiful young lady, she's beginning

to ask more difficult questions and parents were like, yeah, some of them

are difficult topically and some are difficult for her to understand or grasp. For

example, not too long ago, I was putting her to bed, and

she likes to wait until it's time to fall asleep to ask hard questions.

She asked, Daddy, if God is so big, how can you fit

in my heart? Isn't it too small for him? And I did my

very best to explain that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, who doesn't have a

body, to dwell within us, and the Holy Spirit helps us to be

more like Jesus and tells us when we do bad things, it doesn't matter

how, it doesn't matter how small our hearts are, he makes a way

to fit. Now, Jude may not have fully understood everything that I said,

and she certainly said as much, irresponding with Okay, Daddy, that

does not make sense, but I believe you. That doesn't make sense,

but I believe you. And that was so profound coming from a seven year

old who will be eight tomorrow. Can't get the band to come up.

In a table talk article written by Arci Sproll, he wrote this about childlike

faith. When we are called to have a childlike faith, that doesn't mean

that we're supposed to have a simplistic faith, or an uninformed faith, or

an unintelligible faith. It means. What it means is that we must have

childlike faith, childlike confidence in our heavenly Father and trust him implicitly. It

means that we must have a childlike confidence in our heavenly Father and trust him

implicitly. This is the kind of great childlike faith that the centurion displayed.

He didn't have to see the works of Jesus be performed to believe in his

authority or in his mighty works. He simply believed. And in her contribution

to the same table talk. Trillia Neubell wrote, faith is a gift from

God. We could never earn God's favor, and we could never sustain his

favor through our good deeds. We need to heed Jesus's words and ask him

to make us like little children receiving the free gift of faith with thanksgiving,

exuberance, and confidence. We don't want to become so familiar with the gospel

that we forget to be like children. It's a childlike faith is having the

confidence in our heavenly Father by trusting him implicitly. There's a lot we learned

from this Roman centurion, just these short ten verses to recap. We learn

that compassion can and should be shown to everyone, regardless of their or our

own standing. With Christ as our example, we have more reason than anyone

to show his example of compassion to others. We learn to be generous without

expectation of a return, or to be generous without partiality. Just like Jesus

gave everything to make a way to the Father for us, so too should

we give of ourselves and of our resources to be an example of Christ's generosity.

We learned to be humble with a good and right view of God that

puts him above us and over everything. With that view, we can overcome

our pride and position ourselves under His grace and authority, not alongside of or

equal to it. We learn to recognize and trust in Jesus as the sovereign

and Lord, to have confidence in what He's done, what he can do,

and what he will do with a childlike faith and confidence in his promises.

One thing I love about this Texas is not just these incredible examples of

Christian living, but how these examples tie in so perfectly with the verses in

Luke that Pastor Duncan took us through the last couple of weeks. These examples

of compassion and generosity, humility, and faith are a perfect representation of some

of the fruits of a Christian. They're an example of what a true believer

will do as one that calls Jesus Lord, the true evidence or fruit of

our salvation. The obedience of the commands of our Lord produces an outpouring of

compassion towards our neighbors. When our neighbor is suffering or going through a hardship,

do we stop at praying for them? Do we stop it merely saying

I'll pray for you and then forget as soon as we walk away. Or

do we suffer alongside of them? Do we suffer alongside of them and help

them through their suffering as Christ suffered for us? The fruit of our salvation

will spur us to do good and to give of ourselves and our resources with

joyful generosity. When we pass the homeless person on the street corner, do

we avoid them? Do we assume that anything we give to them will be

squandered? And I ask you this, how often do we squander the gifts

and provisions that God gives us? How often do we squander the gifts and

the blessings that God provides for us? Shouldn't God's gifts and provision in our

lives, in spite of our failings, push us to do good to others

as well? Regardless of what someone might do with our generosity, It's not

our job to make sure someone uses their gifts appropriately. Whatever we deem appropriate

to be the fruit of our salvation will turn our hearts, our speech,

and our actions from pride to grateful humility. Because we are beloved subjects and

children of a powerful, merciful, holy God and Father. Our status as

children of God does not make us superior to the unbeliever. Our adoption into

God's family reveals to us our ultimate need for a safe and how we are

called to be holy because He is holy. That knowledge should drive us to

look at and speak towards, and act towards, and pray for each person

earnestly because they need Him just as much as we do. We are to

do all things with humility, not with pride. And lastly, the believer

will live his or her life with the faith that the Holy Spirit grants us.

The faith to trust in our Lord's promises, the faith to act and

to speak in ways that are pleasing to God, the faith to lean on

Him in times of hardship. And it's that faith that prompts us to turn

from our sin and repent. When we fail at all of those things I

just listed, because we will, They're gonna fail. But God is good.

He is rich in mercy. When we confess our sins, he is

faithful and just to forgive us. Praise God and praise God that there is

no shortage of that mercy. I implore you, if you have not repented

of your sins and submitted yourself to the Lord, declared him lord of your

life, believed in your heart, confessed with your tongue that he is Lord.

Don't wait, don't wait. Praise God. And on that heavy topic,

no it's not heavy, it's good. Praise God for his mercy.