Matthew chapter 8. And we'll be looking at verses 5
through verse 13 tonight. Matthew chapter 8 and verse 5
through 13. And if you will, flip your Bibles
over there. I want you to hold your place here, but flip your
Bibles over to Luke chapter 7. This is the parallel account
of this miracle here, and I want us to see this because I think
Luke gives us a little bit more detail than Matthew does, and
it will help us to see some things out of this as well. So if you
will, hold your place over there in Luke as well as Matthew. The title of the message tonight
is, The Authority of Christ. the authority of Christ. The Scripture says in Matthew
8 and verse 5, And when Jesus entered into Capernaum, there
came unto Him a centurion beseeching Him, and saying, Lord, My servant
lieth home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will
come and heal him. And the centurion answered and
said, Lord, I'm not worthy that thou shouldest come under my
roof, but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed.
For I'm a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And
I say to this man, go, and he goeth, and to another come, and
he cometh. And to my servant, do this, and he doeth it. And
when Jesus heard it, he marveled and said unto them that followed
him, Verily, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith,
no, not in Israel. And I say unto you that many
shall come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of
the kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness, and there shall
be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' And he said unto the centurion,
Go thy way. And as thou hast believed, so
be it done unto thee. And the servant was healed in
the selfsame hour." Now in the text, we have the centurion here
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, begging for the healing of his
servant. But if you were to read the account
over in Luke's Gospel, you will notice that it's really not the
centurion that came personally. But rather he sent to the Lord
Jesus certain Jews, rulers. He sent the rulers of the Jews
to the Lord Jesus Christ. It says that in Luke chapter
7 and verse 3. He said, And when he heard of
Jesus, he sent unto them the elders of the Jews, beseeching
him that he would come and heal his servants. You see, this man
was a man of power. This centurion was a man of authority. He understood what it was like
to have authority, and he understood what it was like to be under
authority. And being such a powerful man,
he sent these Jews. He sent these Jews to Jesus.
And obviously, by this, by the account of these Jews, we can
learn something about this man. He was a proselyte. He was a
proselyte to the Jewish religion. You can tell that by what they
say in Luke 7 when he said that this man was worthy. These Jews,
imagine this, the Jews said that a Gentile was worthy of something. Now that speaks a lot of this
man. He was a proselyte to the religion
and they said of him, he loveth our nation and hath built a synagogue.
You see, this man loved the Gospel. He loved the Old Testament types
and pictures of Christ. And he knew that Christ was coming. He knew that Christ was coming.
He was a proselyte and knew Christ was coming. He was a wealthy
and powerful man. He built a synagogue of worship
to God. And now the eyes of these Jews
see this man as worthy of a miracle. They see him worthy. Jesus, you
ought to go heal this guy, he's worthy. But that's not what this man
thought of himself, was it? That's not what this man thought
of himself. This man saw that Jesus was the Christ. He saw
that he had the authority of God. And he saw his unworthiness. And so when Jesus said to the
servants, He said, OK, you go tell him I'm coming. And as the servants reached this
centurion, what was his answer? He said, no, you go back and
tell him to stop. Don't tell him to come under
my roof. I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy that he should
even come under my roof. He said, I'm a Gentile. I'm a
heathen. I'm not even of the children
of God, of the nation of the Jews. I'm not worthy that He
should come to my house. You know, the Jews, the Gentiles,
when they had to worship, they had to worship in the outer court.
This man knew his place. He knew his place. But friends,
more than that, he knew who was coming. He knew who was coming. This man believed that Jesus
was anointed with authority. The authority of God as the Christ. He said, I understand authority.
I have people over me that tell me what to do, and I have people
under me, and I tell them what to do. So I understand something
about authority, and I know this, Jesus Christ, Jesus is the Christ,
and He has all authority. He has all authority. And then back in Matthew 8, the
Lord gives this, the Holy Spirit gives this thing, and I can't,
I don't think I can spend much time here, but I want us to see
this. Look at the Lord's response to
His faith. He says in verse 10, when the
Lord heard it, He marveled. The Lord marveled at something.
Now, it wasn't that the Lord was surprised. The Lord's not
surprised by His faith. Jesus is the author and finisher
of all faith. So it's not He was surprised. He marveled in this that this
Gentile would believe that He's the Christ while the Jews had
no idea who He was. That's what He marveled at. He
marveled at the Jews' unbelief and this Gentile's belief. Every Jew was raised with the
knowledge that Christ was coming. They knew the Scriptures. From
a child, they were able to recite the Scriptures verbatim. And here's this Gentile centurion
who had just now come, I'm sure later in his life, to understand
that Christ was coming, to understand the Scriptures. And yet, he believed
and they didn't. I'll bring it home to you just
like this. How many children grow up in the church, hear the
gospel all their lives and go away never believing? Is it not
then a marvel to see somebody who's never heard come in and
immediately grasp the gospel? Is that not a marvel? Of course
it is. We marvel at that. Our Lord marveled
at that. Our Lord marveled at that. Jesus
marveled at this guy's faith and the unbelief of the Jews. But all faith is a marvel, isn't
it? It's a marvel that anyone believes. It's a marvel that
anyone believes. It's a miracle that anyone believes.
And Lord told these Jews, He says, you know what, you guys
are going to be rejected and they're going to come from the
east and the west and they're going to come from everywhere
and come into the kingdom and the children of the kingdom will
be cast out. And so Jesus turned to this man,
He said, by my authority, your servants healed and he was healed.
And that's what I want to speak on tonight is the authority of
Christ. I'll give you just an overview of what's going on in
this text. Now I really want to focus tonight on the authority
of Christ. What authority does Christ have? What authority did this man recognize
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ? First of all, he recognized the
authority of Christ as a representative. The eternal Son of God, Jesus,
He from all eternity had authority. He who made all things, created
all things, and by whom all things consist and move and have their
being is by Jesus Christ. Colossians 1.16 says, For by
Him were all things made that are in heaven and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things are created by Him
and for Him. He had all authority. He had
it. He from the beginning had all
honor and majesty, power, dominion. He had it all. How is it then
that we can say that He received authority? How is it that we can say that
He was under authority? Because He was. This servant
recognized it. He said, I know your position. You're under authority and you
have all authority. You have it. It is because from the beginning
God has chosen a people to Himself. From the beginning God chose
a people that He would bring to Himself. Some of Adam's fallen
race He would bring to Himself for His own glory. He would adopt
them. He would love them. He would
save them. And He has chosen to save them
only in Christ. According as He had chosen us
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
and without blame before Him. In love, having predestinated
us unto adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure
of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein
He hath made us accepted, where? In the Beloved, in Christ, in
Christ. So then, We may see that Christ
truly was God, having all authority, but in the covenant of grace,
the Lord Jesus Christ agreed to be the surety, the mediator,
the high priest, the intercessor of God's people. And by doing
so, He must become a man. He must become a man. This was told in the Old Testament
types and pictures and shadows from the beginning, wasn't it?
The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent. What
is it telling us? He's going to become a man. And as a man,
he is going to have a people that he will represent. We can
see that by the nation of Israel, can't we? The nation of Israel
is a type, a picture of the church, God's chosen people. God says this in Isaiah 42 verse
1, Behold My servant. So we know He's going to be a
man and He's going to be a servant. He's going to be a servant. When a king sends forth a servant,
that's what gives the servant authority or power, was the king's
seal. And God has set His seal on Christ. and given him authority. He is
God's servant. He says, He's mine elect, in
whom I, my soul delighteth. I put my Spirit upon Him. And He did, didn't He? When John
the Baptist was told that the Christ was coming, what was the
sign? The sign is the Spirit of God
shall descend upon him. That's the mark of God. The authority
of God was the Spirit of God. Christ was a servant of God.
And He was a servant of God because He would be the surety of the
elect. He became a servant. And as a servant, He received
authority to represent all of God's elect. You know, think about the couriers. You think of a courier in the
middle of a war. He is given a package and he
must deliver that. He's given the authority to carry
that through and to represent that general by that letter. And that's what Christ has done.
He said, God says, here are my people and I have given you authority
to represent them. And that's what he did. He had
authority to represent. You see, it was by man that sin
came into the world, whereas by one man sin entered in the
world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men.
Therefore, as for by the offense of one, judgment came upon all
men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one,
the free gift upon all men, under justification of life, for as
by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the
obedience of one man shall many be made righteous." He was a
man to be a representative. Jesus declaring this in John
chapter 6 says, This is the Father's will which has sent me, that
of all which He hath given me. God gave His elect into the hands
of Christ and gave Him the authority to
represent them. Behold, Jesus the Christ has
been given the people by the will of God And he should lose
nothing. That's what his authority was.
He should lose nothing, but raise it up again the last day. He
was given to be the high priest, the mediator of the covenant,
the authority of God to represent a people. Number two, he was
given the authority to destroy the works of the devil. Flip
over to 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 8.
1 John chapter 3 and verse 8 says,
"...he that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth
from the beginning." When God created man, He created
man perfect and upright and holy. Man communed with God, worshiped
God, and God accepted his worship because he was holy. He was created
that way. But Satan, the father of lies,
the father of sin, came into this world and tempted our mother,
deceived her. But our father was not deceived.
Adam rebelled against God, and as soon as he rebelled against
God, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. So death passed
upon us all. So therefore, we see this in
this verse here, he that committed sin is of the devil. Who here
has not committed sin? We have all committed sin. We
have all committed sin against God. And because of our sin,
we are enslaved and chained by nature to sin. This is how we
come in this world. We come in chained. Chained. Enslaved. We come in this world condemned.
Not only has our sin chained us, but the law condemns us.
And rightly so. He that sinneth is after the
devil. Why? Because he's the father
of it. He's the father of it. And they that sin follow their
father. That's what John's saying. They're
enslaved to it. They're cursed by the law and
they're chained to their sin. And not only they're chained
to their sin, they're accused of the devil. He accuses men. He accuses them. Not only does
He tempt them, not only does He lead them, not only does He
entice them to sin, but when they do, what does He do? Look
at what they did. Look at what they did. He accuses
them. And we all come into the world
this way. All come in this world captive. Much like this paralyzed man
in our text. The palsy is a paralyzing disease. And the Scripture says here that
this man, in Luke's Gospel, it says that he was nigh unto death.
He was laying down on his deathbed. This man, no doubt, could not
feed himself. He could not care for himself.
He could not even swallow the food if it was put into his mouth.
He was ready to die. He was probably nothing more
than a skeleton laying there, putrid and stinks because he
couldn't clean himself. Is that not what the Scripture
says about us? That we by nature, from the soles of our feet to
the crown of our head, are nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores. That's what our nature is. The
Scripture uses so many different illustrations to picture the
corruptness of our nature. You put them all together, you
have a dead, blind, deaf, dumb, sore, infested being. It's horrid. It stinks. And that's how our nature is
to God. Now some of you worked in a hospital.
Now friends, I've preached in a hospital, and I can tell you,
it is, sometime when the body lays there, and there's nobody
there to clean it, It is a putrid smell. And that's how our smell
of our sin is in the nostrils of God. It's a picture of us. There's our nature, paralyzed,
unable, incapable of saving himself. And friends, as I preach the
message and declare it unto you, and I say, believe on Christ,
come to Christ, I know this, that the dead man cannot come
to Christ. Unless he had life. You could
have told that paralyzed man to just get up. If you'll just
get up. He couldn't get up. He had no
ability to get up. And this man was not only paralyzed,
he was mad. In Matthew's gospel it says,
he was grievously tormented. This means he was incoherent.
He couldn't understand. You could bring him the gospel,
but he couldn't understand it. I've had that happen to me before
when I would try to... There was a saint that I knew
and he was dying and I was giving him words of comfort, but it
was too late. He was just incoherent. He couldn't understand. And sometimes
I had to give counsel. I gave the gospel to people who
were incoherent. And they died without Christ. This man was mad. He was insane. And so is everyone outside of
Christ. Are they not mad? Is it not utter
insanity to run from heaven and to run to hell? Is that not madness? When I say, come to Christ, believe
on Christ, look to Christ, there's life, there's hope. And what
do men do? They just run away as though
he was something evil. It's madness. This is the human
nature. And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
He was given authority. He was given authority to break
the chains of our sins. He was given authority to break
the chains of our sins, to relinquish us from the curse of the law,
and to banish our enemy." To banish our enemy. I love this
picture. Go over to Jeremiah chapter 51. I was reading it this week, and
man, I really got a blessing out of this verse. Jeremiah chapter 51. And look at verse 56. Let's go
to verse 55, I'm sorry. It says, "...because the Lord
hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice, when
her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice
is uttered, because the spoiler is come unto her." You see that
little nation of Israel? It was captured by a great giant
Babylon. There it was. It was deserving
to be captured. Deserved to be there. And yet,
God says, that's my remnant. That's my people. And I will destroy Babylon. You
see, friends, Babylon is a picture of sin and Satan. It's a picture
of the curse of the law. It's a picture of what we deserve
by nature. But God says, I'm going to send
a spoiler. Someone in to deliver them out
of Babylon. And not only deliver them out,
but destroy Babylon while he's there. And this spoiler is Jesus
Christ. Satan being the strong man armed,
how can he be defeated unless a stronger come in? And the stronger
has come in, Jesus Christ. And God gave him authority to
be the representative. And as he represented his elect
and walked in righteousness after the law, so did his elect. And when He died, when all the
sins of His people were poured out on Him, when He died and
God's wrath came on Him, His people were there in Him. And by His blood He spoiled death. Colossians chapter 2. Colossians 2 and verse 15, And
having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them. How did He do that? By
His life and by His death. He was given authority to represent
His people. He did represent them and gave
them a righteousness and provided for them atonement for their
sins. And number three, He has given
authority to give eternal life to sinners. This life that He
has made, this righteousness that He formed and fashioned
with His own hands, His blood which He shed willingly for sins,
now, even now, God has raised Him from the dead and He has
authority to give it to whomsoever He will. He has authority. He not only had authority when
He was here, friends, He has authority now. And He has authority
to give this to sinners. Look at John chapter 17. John
chapter 17, verse 1 says, Father, the hours come, glorify Thy Son,
that Thy Son may glorify Thee. As Thou hast given Him power,
authority over all flesh, Why was He doing that? That He
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him.
He shall give eternal life to all that He represented. Friends, I'm so thankful salvation
is not something we have to complete. I'm so thankful that I don't
have to add one bit to what Christ has already done. He did it all. He did it all. You see, salvation
is not something that He provided for everyone. He provided it
for His elect. And friends, He shall give eternal
life to as many as... How many is that? I don't know.
It's a lot. It's a lot. as many as the Father
hath given Him." That's how many. Friends, I'm so thankful His
blood has already atoned for my sins. His righteousness has already
been imputed. And you know what? His blood
and His righteousness are already made ready for all of His elect,
even though they've not come in yet." Even though they've
not come in yet. I know this, that they all will
come in. They all will believe on Christ.
For everyone whom Christ died for, they will come by faith
to Jesus Christ. You see, this is why He's sitting
on the throne right now. He is moving all things. according
to the counsel of His own will, so that He might bring in His
elect and give them eternal life. And He will. He will. I like
that scripture that says, He hath prevailed to open the book. and to loose the seals thereof."
To open the book, that's salvation. To loose the seals, that's providence. Christ is loosening the seals
of providence and bringing in His sons and daughters from afar. This should comfort every one
of us who believe in Christ. And we should be content with
whoever God brings in. And we should not be disgruntled
about who He does. That's not our business. And God forgive us of that great
sin of second-guessing Him. He knows all and does all things
well. He has power over all men and
is calling His children. And friends, we have a sure anchor
for our souls, Jesus Christ, who has gone within the veil
for us as our High Priest. Now then, in the few minutes
remaining, I want us to look at the authority that He has
given us. God gave Him authority to represent
a people. God gave Him authority To put
away their sin and to bind Satan, the enemy, and cast him out.
God gave him authority to give eternal life to as many as that
God gave Him. Now, but God has also given us
authority by Christ. We that believe on Jesus Christ
have authority. Do you realize what the Scripture
says about us in Revelation? It says, "...and he hath made
us kings and priests unto God." Now friends, I know we don't
see ourselves as that. But it doesn't matter what we
see. It's what God says. God says, you are kings and priests
unto your God. We have authority. God has given
us authority. And there are some things I want
us to see. That we have authority over this. He has given us authority
to believe on Him. You have the right. The privilege,
the power, the authority to believe on His name. If you have believed,
and you are believing, and you shall believe, we know that this
is because He has given us the authority to believe. Hasn't
He? Scripture says that Jesus Christ
is the author and finisher of our faith. Let me ask you this,
do you have faith? Do you believe on the Son of
God? Then exercise it. Why? You have authority to exercise
it. The Scripture tells us to exercise
our faith, doesn't it? If we are given faith by Christ,
we should exercise our faith. If we've been given the privilege
to believe, should we not walk by faith and not by sight? Oh, that's easily rolled off
the tongue, isn't it? But yet we have this privilege
to believe on Christ. And we should walk this way.
How easily are we moved by things? How easily is our attention diverted
from Christ? to self. Friends, we must exercise the
faith that we've been given. We must exercise it because we
have authority to. Number two, we have authority
to preach His Word. I have the authority to preach
God's Word and so do you. Matthew chapter 28, turn there.
Matthew chapter 28. I want you to read every word
of this very carefully. Verse 18, all authority is given
unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore. Why? Why should you go? Because all
authority is given to Him, and He's given the authority to you
to go. Go! Why? Because you have the
authority to go. You go in the name of the Most
High God. What are we to do? Teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son,
and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe whatsoever things
I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to
the end of the world. He that hath authority has given
us authority to preach His gospel, to witness to others of Jesus
Christ. You have the authority to preach
His gospel. Believer, Go ye into all the
world and preach the gospel without compromise, without apology. We don't apologize for this gospel.
This is the mess that the church has gotten into. It's been apologetic. It's like, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't
mean to offend you. You know what? I really don't
care if this word offends people. Why? Because I have authority
to tell you what God said, and so do you. You have authority. Where's our authority? Here it
is. Here's our authority. God has given us His Word. What more authority do we need?
If they won't hear, that's not our business either. Our business
is to witness of Christ, to tell of Christ. Notice I didn't say
anything about telling them about doctrine, although that's involved. I'm not trying to change someone's
mind. I'm trying to show them Christ. I want them to see the
man, the God-man, the high priest. I want them to see Him who has
all power. And so should you when you witness.
Witness with authority. I love that text that Paul says,
now, then we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God Himself
did beseech you by us. By me. Be you reconciled to God. Friends, you are kings and priests
under your God. Witness without apology and without
compromise. Tell them the truth and let God
deal with it. And lastly, we have the authority
to eat of the tree of life. Go to Revelation, last text.
Go to Revelation chapter 22. Revelation chapter 22, verse
13. Jesus here says, I am the alpha
and omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
In other words, I have authority. I have authority. And blessed
are they that do His commandments, that they may have the right
to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into
the city. Friends, what does this mean?
You that believe, you have the right and the authority to feast
on Christ. You have the right to come to
His table and feast any time your heart desires. You have that authority. Just as Esther came in, and she
came in and she was scared because if the king did not hold the
scepter, Friend, our King always holds a scepter for you. And He says, you're welcome in
My presence all the time. All the time, come and welcome.
You have the authority, the right of sons to come into My presence. We may feast on Christ at all
times. By His authority, we as His elect
also have the authority to claim every promise of Holy Scripture
as our own. Sometimes I can understand how
God would give you the promises. Sometimes I have difficulty myself
understanding why God would give me the promises. These are mine. These are mine. Every one of them are all mine. And I have a right to every single
one of them. Pardon, forgiveness, eternal
life, and God Himself as my reward. I have a right to these. I have
authority. And so do you. Claim them. They're yours. They're yours. How? Because He has authority
to give them to you. I pray this will be a blessing
to you. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.