Sept 6, 2026 - The Gospel of Luke - Week 18 - Unexpected Faith

This Roman centurion has access to every power known to man, yet in front of all these people, he cries out, Jesus, please come into my situation and heal my servant.

I can't do it.

I have nothing left.

I cannot make this.

I can't change anything.

I have all the money in the world.

I have all the power in the world.

I have the empire backing my life.

But Jesus, you have an authority of like I've never seen before.

Please heal my servant.

Welcome in everyone.

My name is Jason, and I'm one of the pastors of Highland Christian Church.

And on behalf of our team, I just wanted to say thanks for taking some time to journey with us through the scripture.

Our hope is that these words would cause you to think carefully about this Jesus we proclaim and that you would choose to trust him in your day-to-day.

And as always, if you're in the Asheville area, whether you live here or you're visiting, we'd love for you to come join us at the corner of Livingston and Depot Street in person at the Dr.

Wesley Grant Senior Southside Center.

Our prayer is that God's words would equip you for every good work that He's prepared for you to do today.

So I I don't know what kind of a house you grew up in, but um when my brother and my sister and myself would get into arguments, we'd come running and um we'd be fighting.

And my mom had a very specific way of ending all of our arguments, and we knew something was about to happen if she used the phrase, I've heard enough.

If you're a parent, you have probably said that phrase.

And you've said it with that tone.

You've said it a little louder, even.

I have heard enough.

And we didn't we don't love that phrase because we know after that phrase is said by our parent, something is about to happen, right?

Probably something we don't like, like you go to your room, you go to your room, you're grounded, you're in trouble, wait till your father gets home, right?

Those kind of statements are all coming.

But we knew action was about to happen because of I've heard enough.

Surprisingly, I hope that in the last 19 weeks, we have been looking in the Gospel of Luke.

We've made it through seven chapters in the last 19 weeks.

We've done a lot of hearing.

I hope you get to the point where you've heard enough.

That's what I think Luke is gonna do in this passage.

And surprisingly, I think you will learn a lot about what it means to be formed as a Christ follower through this passage this morning.

And so I don't know, maybe it's a pattern that we can learn, maybe it's something that we can take with us, but I think Luke wants us to be at a place where we have heard enough.

The last time we spent time in Luke's uh gospel was Jesus finishing with a story of two guys doing what?

Hearing.

One of those people put into practice Jesus' words, and they were compared to a wise guy building on a rocky foundation, and one of them did not put into practice what Jesus said, and the house collapses with a terrible crash.

We've all been hearing.

Everybody's been hearing.

We live in a world that you can now make money on a podcast where what people are doing is what?

Listening.

Here, here, here, here, here.

We can hear everything now.

Have you heard enough?

That's where Luke is gonna lead us this morning.

And Luke is about to show us what having heard enough looks like.

But he's gonna show us through somebody that nobody would have expected in this scenario.

He's not, it's not gonna be the disciples, it's not gonna be a good rabbi, it's gonna be through the life of a Roman centurion.

And by the end of that encounter, as Miss Doreen introduced us to, Jesus is going to be amazed.

Luke 7, verse 1.

Luke 7:1

After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, see everybody's hearing, right?

He entered Capernaum.

Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him.

When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant.

And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.

And Jesus went with him.

When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, Lord, do not trouble yourself, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.

Therefore I did not presume to come to you.

But say the word, let my servant be healed, for I too am a man set under authority with soldiers under me, and I say to one, Go and he goes, and to the other, come, then he comes, and to my servant, do this, and he does it.

When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, turning to the crowd that followed him, and said, I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.

And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.

Now before we get to what this man heard, and why Jesus calls this response faith, we have to appreciate who Luke has just put in front of us, a Roman centurion.

In Luke chapter 4, we heard Jesus say, Hey, the good news, it's come.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

Freedom.

I'm gonna lift the burden off of those who are who are poor and the oppressed.

I'm gonna lift those things.

And the the scripture you're reading has been fulfilled today.

And the people are like, Yay! And then Jesus actually tells them about two non-Jewish Gentile people who got to receive the grace of God.

The crowd hated that sermon so much they wanted to throw Jesus off a mountain.

Like it's so amazing who they thought was deserving and who was undeserving.

And Jesus is explaining here's the here's the deal with God's grace.

It's going worldwide, and you're gonna have to get used to that.

You're gonna have to be okay with it.

And so Luke's gospel has already introduced us to the widow, reminded us of the widow, reminded us of all these different people who should not be encountering God's grace, encountering God's grace.

He, the Roman centurion, is the bad guy.

But Luke interrupts this picture, this stereotype.

In fact, he says, This man somehow cares deeply for us as Jewish people.

He's helped fund our synagogue, and now there are actually Jewish leaders going, hey, you gotta you gotta take care of this guy.

He's worthy of you coming to him and meeting him.

And to everyone's surprise, it actually shouldn't surprise us anymore this far into Luke.

Jesus goes.

Jesus starts heading to this Roman centurion's house.

Like the Roman centurion, and I know we can't think, we don't get this because we live in the United States.

We cannot think of living under the thumb of an oppressing nation.

We just can't.

And I know that's hard for us, but the reality is they lived in a world where they got to choose nothing of their own.

They lived in a world where they were told what to do and how to do it, and they could be told in an instant, hey, carry my backpack one mile.

Like a Roman soldier could be like, I'm gonna take advantage of you because you're Jewish.

They could do that.

And so for this man, this Roman centurion to be somebody that the church, that the that the Jews would have to hear this story of, are you serious?

Jesus is gonna answer this dude?

That's kind of messed up.

That's the day that Jesus came in.

But before Jesus gets to this Roman centurion's house, another group arrive.

And this is not another group of Jewish leaders trying to argue with him.

Hey, how dare you?

No, you shouldn't go see.

No, it's actually people that are friends with the Roman Centurion.

And the Roman Centurion's like, I got a message for you.

The message is please, I'm not even worthy to you for you to come to my house.

That's why I didn't come to trouble you.

I just didn't see myself worthy to come stand before you.

So please, just say the word.

Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof.

Therefore, I did not presume to come to you.

This group's message is very different than the first set.

And I just want you to see the comparison.

The first set of messages was from the Jewish elders.

This guy's worthy, right?

He is worthy.

But yet, the Roman centurion sends another message.

I'm not worthy.

Those are two very different statements.

Two very different views of this man.

And the one that is the least is coming from the Roman centurion.

In Luke chapter 5, Peter says to Jesus, Go away from me, Lord, I'm a sinful man.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

John the Baptist says he's not worthy to tie Jesus' shoelaces.

Paul says, I'm the worst.

Right?

Out of the mouth of a Gentile Roman official, you hear the words, I'm not worthy.

And I want to make something very clear.

This is not self-hatred.

Something happens when people begin to recognize who they're actually dealing with in Jesus.

I've sat in many conversations with people who are like, Christians, you just you just love to beat yourselves up for no reason.

You think it impresses God?

You like to self-you know, you're just so, you beat yourself up, you say you're a worm, you say you're all these things, that's not healthy, and all the different stuff that comes with it.

That is not what this is.

I need you to hear me say that there is no healthier view than understanding who God is and who we are.

I believe that.

I believe that's what the scripture teaches.

But yes, are there people who take it to extreme and make you basically say, well, you're a you're a you're a worm and you're nothing and you're all of these things.

Yeah, they do.

And and but what we see here is a very different response.

For the believer, something happens.

Faith does not begin with me going, God, look how worthy I am of you.

It just doesn't start that way.

When you read through the scripture, you see this natural interaction that begins with, I'm not worthy, but I'm confident that you are good.

Like there's this amazing thing that happens when you watch the believer who's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you are so big and holy and powerful, God.

I don't even deserve to be in the same room, but by your grace alone, here I am.

I'm standing there.

It's this weird tension, it's this weird sense of I don't belong here, but except for your grace, I'm here.

It puts all of that into who God is and beginning to understand that.

And something changes with this man.

And the reason the centurion is beginning to see himself differently is because he's beginning to see Jesus differently.

But that's not what amazes Jesus.

Verse 7, but say the word, this is the Roman centurion, but say the word and let my servant be healed, for I too am a man set under authority with soldiers under me.

And I say to one, go and he goes, and to another come and he comes, and to my servant, do this, and he does it.

Why would this Roman centurion say something like this?

Because this Roman soldier official understands how authority works.

This official compares his life to the way he sees Jesus' authority over sickness.

He has soldiers under him.

A Roman centurion could typically have anywhere between 60 to 100 soldiers under their leadership.

And the reason this Roman official was in charge was not because he could beat all of those 60 to 80 to 100 guys in an arm wrestling competition.

The reason he was in charge and the reason they responded to him was because that Roman centurion represented all the authority of the Roman Empire.

They knew that this dude, when he spoke, when he did, when he acted, it was because he was backed by the greatest empire on the earth.

This man is making a statement about Jesus.

There is an authority behind you that is unlike anything I have ever encountered.

For this man to make that declaration at that time in that day when Rome was the most powerful kingdom on the earth.

This man was saying, There's somebody bigger, badder, stronger than Rome.

There is a king.

There is someone visiting who is more powerful than Caesar.

This is a big statement in this moment.

There is an important detail that you and I can't skip over in this.

And Luke tells us that the Roman official makes this statement because he had heard about Jesus.

This is not blind faith.

I have heard people say, and television and media loves to up to play up the Christian on the TV shows, the reality TV shows.

The Christians, like, well, yeah, just faith is, I know, it's believing something that's not true.

And I'm like, that is the dumbest statement I have ever heard.

And of course they put it coming out of the Christian's mouth.

For the media, just nom nom nom nom nom nom.

We love that stuff.

No.

This is not blind faith.

Luke tells us the Roman official has heard about Jesus.

There is a process to Christian formation.

And the scriptures tell us it begins with hearing.

If Jesus possesses the authority he thinks he does, then the distance of Jesus' presence doesn't matter.

He can heal.

If he's the authority over all sickness, death, and all the things, then he doesn't have to be in the same room with me.

He could do it from wherever.

I have heard enough.

Ultimately, the centurion is saying, I've heard enough about Jesus to trust my current situation to him.

I'm handing over to Jesus what is valuable to me because my servant is in better hands with you than he could ever be with me.

We're beginning to see what Jesus is talking about.

This man had heard about Jesus.

But what he heard caused him to recognize something about Jesus.

And what he recognized caused him to entrust something to Jesus.

Highland, I think Luke may have just introduced us to what spiritual formation looks like.

This may be not just a one-time thing.

This may be a moment by moment journey that we go on with the Lord.

Constantly hearing, recognizing, entrusting.

To entrust something means I stop simply thinking how you can handle something, and I actually put that thing in your hands.

I can tell my 15-year-old I think you can drive, but I never let him get behind the wheel.

But I do let him get behind the wheel.

I am entrusting my life to my 15-year-old.

Terrifying.

Or I can say, I've heard that you're getting better at driving.

I'm recognizing that you're kind of on your way to your license.

Here are the keys.

I will get in the car with you.

Just like that.

I will get in the car with you, right?

This is what it means to entrust.

Verse 9, when Jesus heard this, he was amazed.

Turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, I tell you, I haven't seen faith like this in all of Israel.

Now, this story, this story never reveals how much faith the centurion has.

I want to make that really clear.

We're going to talk about that because I think the church and some people have got this all twisted.

We have to have a serious conversation about why Jesus is amazed if he never mentions the level of faith.

If he never mentions how high or how tall or how big or how deep the faith actually is, why would he respond this way?

From what we see in scripture, it does not look to me like Jesus treats human faith like, eh.

They believed in me.

It's all right, whatever.

No, that's not what I see in the scripture.

In the scripture, Jesus knows human weakness from the inside.

Temptation, fear, vulnerability, what it means to obey the Father under pressure.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is a high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses because he has been tempted as we are, yet he is without sin.

Sin is choosing self in whatever circumstance over God.

That's what it is.

We have a high priest, Jesus, did not blow it.

Like Adam blew it, he did not blow it.

Like messiahs who have claimed to be messiahs have come before, blew it, Jesus did not blow it.

He has been faced with every temptation that we possibly could to put trust in ourselves and never blew it.

He never walked away.

He never ran the other direction and said, I got this.

Surrender was his life.

I think Jesus is amazed because with all these competing authorities around, this unlikely centurion chooses faith, chooses to declare he trusts that Jesus has ultimate authority, and chooses to hand over what matters most to him.

Jesus is amazed.

And I'm willing to hand my life to you.

Jesus is amazed.

This doesn't mean Jesus is caught off guard.

It doesn't mean he's surprised by it.

It doesn't mean that he's like, oh, I didn't know a Roman centurion could have.

No, it was this Roman centurion has access to every power known to man, yet in front of all these people, he cries out, Jesus, please come into my situation and heal my servant.

I can't do it.

I have nothing left.

I cannot make this, I can't change anything.

I have all the money in the world, I have all the power in the world, I have the empire backing my life.

But Jesus, you have an authority like I've never seen before.

So please heal my servant.

Jesus turns to the crowd, which is interesting.

It's a group of people that have probably seen more than the centurion has.

And essentially, Jesus says to the crowd, keep this guy in mind.

Not because he's perfect, not because he's worthy, not because he somehow reached level 10 faith.

Maybe this is where the story gets wonderfully uncomfortable for all of us.

Because you know it's going to.

When the rubber meets the road.

Luke has shown us the movement of faith in this man's story, and it began back in verse 3.

When the centurion heard about Jesus.

We don't know exactly what he heard.

Stories from Capernaum.

The Capernaum was a place Jesus hung out.

So chances are people were talking.

People were listening to, or they maybe experienced Jesus.

And this Roman centurion is probably investigating because he's at the end of his rope.

He's like, I don't think my servant's gonna make it, but man, I'm hearing about this Jesus.

Hey, did you meet Jesus?

Hey, did you meet Jesus?

Hey, do you know Jesus?

Hey, have you encountered anyone that knows Jesus?

And he's beginning to gather these stories, but he's heard about Jesus somehow.

And that's where faith often begins.

Romans 10 17.

So faith comes from what?

Hearing.

That is hearing the good news about Christ.

Somebody tells, somebody hears, somebody responds.

What we begin to hear is confronting us with the question, and the question is always who is this Jesus?

Faith comes by hearing.

Heard, recognized, entrusted.

Heard, recognized, entrusted.

Based upon what he heard, the centurion recognized something about Jesus.

I'm not worthy.

That's recognition.

Just say the word.

That's recognition.

You possess authority.

I do not.

That is recognition.

Those are all great, but here's where I think we get Christianity confused, especially in America when we live in a culture where we tend to just reduce belief to going, I agree with you.

Right?

We think that's belief.

To just say, I agree, I agree, I agree.

Not what we see here.

You can say, I believe in Jesus.

You can say, I like Jesus.

You can say, I agree with Jesus.

Still the question, have you entrusted yourself to Jesus?

We love to wiggle out from entrusting.

We love, I heard, I recognize, but the idea of handing my life to God, to entrusting my situation to God.

We are control freaks at the core of who we are.

We have access to so much authority in this country.

To surrender seems weak.

But it's the way forward in faith.

Imagine you're being told you need a really complicated surgery, and you start researching this surgeon.

You read where the doctor is trained, you learn that she's performed a procedure hundreds of times, you talk to someone who had the same operation, and they're like, She is incredible.

She saved my life.

You've got to go to her.

You've heard.

Then you meet her.

She walks you through all the scans and the process.

She explains exactly what is going to happen to you.

She tells you what she intends to do and why, and everything you've heard begins to make sense.

You recognize.

Alright.

Okay.

She's got it together.

She knows what she's doing.

Okay, all right.

But here's where we tend to stop off.

You can hear all of those things.

You can even recognize that she's got the skills.

You can still walk out of the hospital.

You can.

At some point, you're going to receive to receive what this surgeon is going to do, you have to do something incredibly vulnerable.

You have to take off your clothes and put that robe on.

That covers nothing.

It's awful.

The draft in the room is just so clear wherever you're walking.

And then you have to lay down on a bed and let them stick you with needles that are gonna make you fall asleep so that someone can use a razor blade to open up your body and fiddle around in there.

Like for you to actually experience the healing that is possible, you gotta do that.

You can hear all day, you can recognize all day, but you can still walk out the hospital, still sick.

That's where I believe Luke is trying to bring us to this morning.

The centurion says, say the word, and my servant will be healed.

This servant matters deeply to him, and he's saying, I gotta put this in your hands because I'm no good with it anymore.

We don't know if this was the bottom of the barrel for this centurion, and you know what?

Jesus doesn't care.

He didn't say, Oh, well, that didn't work out for you, so now you're coming to me.

You tried all your Roman money and all your Roman power and all your Roman authority and doctors, and now you're here with me.

Jesus actually just goes with him.

He's like, Yeah, I'm willing.

I'll go.

I'll walk.

And Luke says Jesus was amazed.

And when they went home, servant, healed.

Notice what Luke doesn't tell us.

He doesn't tell us how strongly the centurion felt his faith.

He doesn't tell us he never doubted or understood everything.

This isn't a story about generating some enormous amount of faith.

It's about where the man put his trust.

See, in the church, we've got this weird thought where we're like, it's up to me to have an enormous amount of faith.

Jesus actually told his disciples when they said, Hey, God, Jesus, we teach us to increase our faith.

He said, if you had faith like a mustard seed, you could toss a mountain into an ocean.

How about you just obey what I said?

That's where he goes with it.

He's like, you don't need more faith.

You just need to walk.

You need to do what I asked you to do.

You've heard, you've recognized.

Now entrust things to me.

Enough with the games, enough with the talk.

Have you heard enough, Highland?

Have you heard enough?

I've heard enough.

I've heard enough.

So now I need to figure out what does it mean to recognize that authority so that I can hand Jesus whatever it is I'm walking through.

And as our team comes and we close this morning, this is how Christian formation works.

And it's just a continual process.

It's why we gather, it's why we spend time in this scripture, it's why we get coffee together, it's why we sit around a table talking about God's word, and it's why we pray, it's why we worship, it's why we take communion, it's why we walk through baptism.

It's all those things.

Why?

Because we need to keep hearing, we need to keep recognizing, and we need to keep entrusting.

Many of you may have walked an aisle where you were like, I heard about Jesus.

I heard about actually I heard about hell and I don't want to go there.

So maybe you're not even sure about Jesus.

You're just like, hell's bad, don't go there.

But maybe you're like, well, I've heard about Jesus.

I'm beginning to recognize more about Jesus.

Now, what does it mean to entrust my life to Jesus?

That's where Luke brings us.

That's why Paul asks, how can they believe if they haven't heard?

Hearing matters, folks.

It just does.

Hearing matters.

You telling your story of God's goodness matters to people around you because they begin to go, is that true?

Is that really possible?

Like God did that?

Like God really provided in that way?

God really said that?

The words of scripture really say that?

Hearing matters.

The way you talk to your coworkers, your kids, a stranger, talking about Jesus matters, but hearing is taking us somewhere.

Paul makes it clear that we're moving towards belief.

We're moving towards entrusting ourselves to him, and that's why I think Jesus turning to the crowd matters so much in this moment.

The centurion's not even there.

So they don't even know.

Maybe they do know what he looks like.

I don't know, but they don't even know.

He looks at the crowd.

He says, Do you see what just happened here?

This man heard, this man recognized, and he asked me into his situation.

Some of us have been hearing about Jesus for decades.

Maybe you even recognize who he is.

Maybe you believe he's the Son of God, maybe you believe that he died and rose, and maybe you believe he is Lord, but there's still one more question.

Have you entrusted yourself to the Jesus that you have heard about and recognized?

More than that, not just do I believe Jesus can be trusted, because some of you will walk out here and be like, yeah, I do, I do.

Well, have you trusted him?

Does Jesus have all authority?

But are you living under that authority?

Can Jesus hold what matters most to me?

Yeah, maybe, but have you actually put it in his hands?

We can say we've entrusted our lives to Jesus.

But what does our prayer life say about what we trust?

Are we entrusting our children to God daily?

Or are we just trying to control everything?

Are we entrusting our financial situation today, or are we just trying to grind and hustle and we'll do whatever it takes to make it?

Are we entrusting our singleness, our dating lives, our marriages to God, or are we just trying to control everything?

Yeah, yeah, Jesus, I've heard you're good and powerful and all that stuff, but I can take it from here, my guy.

I got it.

Too many of us stop at recognizing we do not entrust.

It's really easy to say we're entrusting our lives to Jesus, but our practices can tell a different story.

The Roman centurion, in a sense, is praying to the God of the universe.

I've heard enough.

I have heard enough.

You have to make my servant well because I'm at the end of my rope.

I can't help him, I can't do anything for him.

But you, if you are who you think I am, you are, I know you can.

Highland.

Have you heard enough?

We just wanted to say thank you for listening to the Highland Christian Church podcast today.

And if you ever want to connect with us, send prayer requests, ask questions, or for any other reason, you can visit our website, www.highlandchristian.com, or you can send us an email at info at highlandchristian.com.

God bless you guys.