Here in John chapter 7, I want
to look at the first 10 verses. And I've never heard this preached
this way. I've heard this passage a whole
lot. You've probably heard a lot of messages on it. And none of
the commentators or anything had any information along these lines, but I thought
this was a blessing to me and it would be a blessing to you.
That centurion, just like that rock, that centurion is Christ.
We always look at ourselves and we're so good for praying for
somebody else because we're fine. I'm all right. The second we
start thinking we're okay, we're in trouble. I sent y'all that
message to Brother Gaves and Marvin had echoed it that evening. As soon as we think we're doing
good and we're the saved ones, we're about to be brought down
a peg or two. But that's Centurion's Christ. I hope we can see that
this morning. Look here at verse 1. There's a title over top of
your passage there. Mine says, Jesus heals a Centurion's
servant. What did the Lord come to this
earth to do? To seek and to save the lost, to heal us. That's
us. Ain't we the sick servant? Look
here at verse 1. Now when he had ended all his
sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. And a certain centurion's servant,
who was dear unto him, was sick and ready to die. And when he
heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching
him that he would come and heal his servant. And when they came
to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying that he was worthy for
whom he should do this, for he loveth our nation and hath built
us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with them, and
when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent
his friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself,
for I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof.
Wherefore, neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee, but
say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am
a man set under authority, having under me soldiers. And I say
to one, go, and he goeth. And to another, come, and he
cometh. And to my servant, do this, and
he doeth it." When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at
him. There's two times in the scriptures,
Brother Todd preached a message on this years ago and I wrote
down some notes and I thought someday I'm going to preach that.
I started studying a little bit and then I'd get away from it.
There's twice in the scriptures Christ marveled. He marveled
at their unbelief and he marveled at this man's faith. He marveled. I kept going over them notes
back to it and finally I was going to get ready to preach it. Then
I realized I had already preached it. If you ever feel bad and
you get home from service and you say, that was a good message,
that really blessed my heart. But what was it about? I don't remember.
Well, you ought to be the one to preach it. And I get through
preaching somewhere and I say, what's your text? I said, well,
I've been looking at it all week. You reckon? If anybody ought
to remember what the text is, it's me. I spent 40 hours on
it. This man had authority. He spoke
these things and Jesus marveled at him. And he turned about and
said to the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not
found so great faith. No, not in Israel. This man had the greatest faith
in Israel. And they that were sent returning
to the house found the servant whole that had been sick. Through
this centurion's great faith, the sick servant was healed by
God. You get that? There's so many
horrible things that people preaching this, and we ought to be diligent.
If the Lord's done that, we ought to look to Him for all things,
and we ought to pray for those that are under our care, that
we have any influence over whatsoever, or those that we don't. Servants.
People that ain't got enough sense to pray for themselves.
People that don't yet know God. We ought to pray to our Lord
for these things. But I wanted to see this morning
the characters in this story. The Lord Jesus Christ here. I
want you to see him as the father. That's his name. He said, my
father are one. So that's right. That's not wrong
to consider him as the father, is it? He said they're one. This
centurion, he was a Gentile. I had some dealings with that. He was a human just like those
Jews were human, but he was different, wasn't he? He was different than
they were. He was over a hundred Roman soldiers. That's what a centurion is, a
centurion. That's a hundred. And he was good to them. He was
loving to them. A centurion is Christ. He was
made a man like me. And this is kind of an inverted
picture. He was made a Jew. Why? I'm not. I'm not. He was. And this man is, he's
a bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, but he's different
than these Jews. This is a Gentile. Our Lord came, was made a man,
was made a Jew, made under the law for us, our substitute. And He intercedes for us on our
behalf because of love. Because of love of that kingdom,
and He builds the church. That was the profession of these
elders about this centurion. And the sixth servant, that's
us. What's a servant's name? Ain't even brought up. It's not
a maidservant, but it's him or her. It was his servant. It was a centurion servant. And
it was in sickness. That's all that was in him. And
all the work and all the conversation and everything that took place
was outside of them and on their behalf. And this one was made
a willing bond slave. A willing bond slave. That was
who was mentioned. Our father mentioned another
one to Satan one time, didn't he? He said, have you considered
my servant, Job? Have we considered him? Briefly,
the elders, they come with a message. That's the preachers. They either
give glory to man or to God. There's no in-between. There's
either a message that glorifies God or there's a message that
glorifies man. Now he can glorify 99.9% of God
and give just a I touch 11, but it's one or the
other. It says in verse 2, and a Satorian
servant who was dear to Him was sick and ready to die. We're
that sick servant. Children of God given to Christ
before time as His inheritance for Him to redeem, for Him to
preserve, for Him to watch over the bishop of our souls and be
raised with Him. We're given to Him. How are we
dear to Him? You ever ask yourself that? I
see him as altogether lovely. How in the world does he see
me as dear, as precious? Did this centurion, did he care
for this servant because he was irreplaceable? He said, well
if there's my servant, this is the man that shines my shoes.
Now if he dies, what's the first emotion? What's going to happen
to my shoes? Is that a good master? That's unloving, isn't it? We
understand that. If my child, if Jared empties
the dishwasher every day, and he's the dishwasher emptier,
and he dies, who's going to empty my dishwasher? If I'm concerned
about those things, I don't love my son. He was concerned for that servant
because he loved him. In Isaiah 43 it said, I am the
Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt
for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Saba for thee. Why? Since thou
was precious in my sight. Thou hast been honorable and
I have loved thee. Therefore will I give man and
people for thy life. Because I loved you. First, you're
precious. How could we be precious? Well,
we're mediated by that centurion, by the captain of our salvation.
That's how. Because he wanted to. We're just
too sick to talk to. We're too sick to do anything.
We're dead in trespasses and sins. Yet he loved us. Those that were given to him.
Like our brethren in Adam, we're no different. Everybody born
of Adam, we're all sin sick and we're all ready to die. Everybody. Brother Gabe said that the other
day, and I've done that too. You're floating an airplane or
drove down the road and you just see, I mean, just be in traffic.
We get mad. I gotta hurry up and get there.
Millions of people are on this globe, billions of people, and
they're ready to die. And they will die. And they're
going to meet God one day. It's a pointer and a man wants
to die. But after this, the judgment and all servants get sick. All
servants die. But this servant is different.
This servant was the centurion's bond slave. This man had been
made willing. And he was dear to that captain,
and that captain, that centurion, was dear to him. They loved each
other. They did. He heard his servant
was sick, and he went down to that servant's house, because
the servant couldn't go up to his house. And he said, where's your
wife and your children? How y'all holding up? Do you
need anything? What can be done? Well, he's
sick or something. There's something inside of him
we can't see, and he's going to die. I'll go to God. I'll go to God
on his behalf. You get that? Verse 2 says that
a certain centurion's servant who was dear to him was sick
and ready to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he
sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he
would come and heal his servant. This centurion, this is the first
thing we see. He knew God and he beseeched
God to do the work of giving life. on that dying person's
behalf. The Lord said in John 17, I pray
for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. The master
said that. The king said that. He said,
these are yours, Father. I'm coming to you. Who is he
praying to? The Father. What's a centurion
doing? He's sending word to God on behalf
of a sick servant. Christ prays for us to the Father. Why would he do that? The Lord
answered him from heaven, didn't he? And they said, oh, it was
a thunder of angels. And he said, I hear him, but
that was out loud for you to hear. This is for your benefit. How many times should we pray
to the Lord? How many times should we trust
Him fully to do all things well? And we don't. How many times
do I and I don't? Oh, what tie I picked out this morning. How I treated that dog this morning
because Josiah wasn't there to feed him. I had to do it. I had
to fetch food for that dog. Should have thanked the Lord
for that because he fed this dog. Our captain did it for us. You
get that? And all of our failures and all our inability because
we are enabled and we're unwise. He's our wisdom. We're unholy. He's our sanctification. I've
never done an act of good things out of this old heart. He's our
righteousness. He's redeemed us. Verse 4 says,
And when they came to Jesus, they besought Him instantly.
Make haste. Make haste. Luke 7, 4. They came
to Jesus, they besought Him instantly, saying that He was worthy for
whom He should do this. Remember when Philip was sent
down there to talk to that Ethiopian unit? He said, well, I'm going
to go get me a sandwich first and might take a nap. So I'm
rested up and good for the trip. He beat a line for it, didn't
he? These elders, these preachers, elders and preachers, elders
and pastors and preachers, all the same thing, bishops and the
scriptures, different aspects of an office, but they're the
preachers. They instantly go to the Father. They instantly
go to the Father. And it's a tale of the worthiness
of that captain. Verse 5, For he loveth our nation,
and he hath built us a synagogue. Now this is preached accurately
two different ways. These elders, if they were just
religious folks, if this is just the people that were appointed
to an office in Judaism, they're trying to indebt Jesus, giving
them reasons for this man, this physical centurion, for his request
to be heard. He's good. He's good. He loves us. He's a Roman and
he loves us. And he's built us a synagogue.
He's an old heathen Gentile and he's building churches for us.
Now somebody that does something like that deserves to have their
prayers answered. Like I said, they're either preaching
the truth or they ain't. There ain't no in-between. They're
looking out for men's souls, or they're looking to profit
off of them. If true elders, that's if it's false ones, but
if true elders, they're instantly coming to the Father saying,
Christ is worthy. He's loved us, and He built this
church. You know, I've heard that, but
then it hits home sometimes. When you start preaching, God's
the one who's listening. The angels, they want to listen
in. This is for your benefit, for
my benefit, our good. And I want you to be happy with
the messages. I want you to be blessed in your hearts. I want
you to be comforted, and the souls only God can comfort. But
making people happy, making mankind pleased, man-pleasers ain't my
concern. I work for a different authority. Is God pleased with it? Is He
honored in it? Is that why we came here today? Well, we've
got to go to church. That's what we do on Sunday.
I want to feel good or whatever. Some motive. Or do we come here
to exalt Christ and honor Him? We've come into this house and
gathered in His name to worship Him. To thank Him and to lift
Him up in this community. Is that why we've come? And to learn of Him. To learn
of Him. This captain is worthy. And I
always keep saying captain in the army. If he was over 100
people, that's a captain. That's an O3. It's an officer.
They had 100 people in them. A centurion, same thing. They
got 100 people in them. This captain, this captain of our
salvation, is he worthy? Why? Because of love for our
nation. He loved those heathens that
the Lord gave him as an inheritance. He said, I'll give the heathens
to you for an inheritance. And he said, I love them. their mind. Is he the one that built this
church? Psalm 227 says, Accept the Lord, build the house, they
that labor in vain that build it. Accept the Lord, keep the
city, the watchman walketh in vain. He has to be the one that
builds the synagogue, that builds the churches, isn't he? It's
his body. He's the head. Over in Luke 14, it says there's
great multitudes with him. He turned to them and he said,
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and
wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own
life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. This is the context
the Lord's speaking in. And then it says, that's the
theme. It gives the example. For which
of you, intending to build a tower, setteth not down first, and counteth
the cost, whether he hath sufficient to finish it? If you're going
to go build a house, don't you sit down and do the math and
say, I was talking about real estate. I saw a thing on real
estate going up, and I thought of you, Bob. You talked about
buying a house. And they said, yeah, this is back in the 50s.
They bought a house for three raspberries. If it costs 10 raspberries and
I don't have 10 raspberries, why can't I build a house? That
offstand test of time. Somebody ain't going to look
up how much inflation was in 2024 down the road. The Lord
said, they'll laugh at you. Less happily after he hath laid
the foundations, not able to finish it, and all that behold
him begin to mock him. Make fun of him, saying this
man began to build and was not able to finish. What's wrong
with you? Didn't you have enough cents?
Don't you own a calculator? What made you think you could build
that building? Now is the Lord teaching us about how to be a
good contractor, a general contractor? Christ, the captain of our salvation,
this great centurion that we're the bondservants of, he counted
the cost of building his church. He loved it and he gave himself,
himself was the cost. And he laid down his life for
us. And it's paid for and finished. It's plumb built. We're just
waiting for the bricks to be stuck in. And waiting for it
to come to pass. That's it. Luke 7, verse 6. Then Jesus went with them, and
when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent
friends with him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself,
for I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof.
Wherefore, neither thought I myself worthy to come to thee, but saying
a word, and my servant shall be healed. I'm not worthy to
be in your presence, but you just speak it. and my servant
will be heathen." First, we saw that centurion knew God. He beseeched
God to do the work of giving life. And second, we see here,
he's humble. This is true humility. True humility. People get up in Pentecostal
churches or whatever, picky denomination, picky boys, and they'll get up
and try to outdo one another. It's competition. Oh, I'm a sinner.
Oh, I'm bad. And it's for show, just seeing
which one can outdo the other one. I understand that. You get
to telling stories about being wild when he was younger, and
then, oh, that reminds me of this story, and that reminds you of that
story, and that reminds me of this story. And we're just trying to tell
which one's got the bigger stories. This is truth humility. Truth
humility. How could the Lord say that?
Our guilt and our shame was laid on Him. Our problem became His
problem. He said in Psalm 22, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from
helping me from the words of my roaring? He goes on and says,
I cried unto thee. They cried unto thee and they
were delivered. They trusted in thee and they were not confounded.
But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despise of people.
How could he say something like that? Just like a sheep before
it shears its dumb and opens not its mouth. Why? Because of that servant, he was
made guilty. And he said, Lord, don't even
come to my house. I'm bearing that one's filth. You just be
good to that one. And because of that act, this is good, this
is where it meets us now. Hang with me. Because of that
act, that servant's going to be healed. The Lord said there in Matthew
5, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, they shall be comforted. Blessed
are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Who's the blessed
man? The Lord Jesus Christ is the blessed man. He's made these
things unto us. And if we see His poor spirit,
that brings us down. If we see Him mourning, it makes
us mourn. If we see Him meek, Not weak,
meek. Moses was the meekest man. He
didn't say, hello, how are you? He walked into Pharaoh's court
and said, let me tell you what God says. But he gave all credit
to him. That's the meekness. Third, we see the authority and
the power ascribed to God alone. Verse 7. Wherefore, neither I
thought myself worthy to come unto thee, but say unto word,
and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man set under
authority, having under me soldiers. And I say to one, go, and he
goeth. Another come, and he cometh. And to my servant, do this, and
he doeth it. I understand this power. Christ is our potentate. He's the only authority. If he
says it, it's done. If you say, well God's trying
to do something. God ain't never tried to do nothing. He ain't
God. Well, He really wants pretty pleased wishes He could do this.
No, if He wants it, it's done. His will shall be done. Lord,
Your will be done. That's why we talk to pray that,
because that prayer is going to be answered. It's going to
happen. All power, honor, and the Lord's will, it's all dependent
on the Father. That's what our Lord told Pilate. He said, Thou canst have no power
at all against me except it were given thee from above. You ever
forget and think that we can do something and realize we ain't
got no power at all. I can't walk from here to that
door unless the Lord does it. Lord, if you're willing. You
just say a word. I know something about power.
I can enter into this. I had some authority. I was a
platoon sergeant. And I'd say, you boys go on your feet. Half right,
face front, in a reposition, move. And they'd start doing
push-ups, drinking water, and go get them a sick call, slip
them a towel. And we'd put them to work. They'd do whatever I
said. I get that a little bit. Lord, oh, could you imagine?
All the electrons. You can't even have a hook account.
I'm moving exactly as He wills it. And it's not that He's just
a sovereign. That'd be terrible if He was
evil and mean. He's holy. He's holy. That's right. Don't you just
say the word. And if you don't say the word, then my servant
dies and that's fine too. But you say the word. But this
isn't just an army captain interceding for somebody that scrubs the
floors. This is Christ as our mediator.
petitioning His Father on our behalf, whoever lives to make
intercession for us. He walked into Solomon's porch
one day, and the Jews came around about Him, and they said to Him,
How long will you make us doubt? If you're the Christ, you tell us plainly. And Jesus answered, I told you,
and you believe me not. That's all I told you. The works
that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness to me. But
you believe not, because you're not of my sheep, as I said unto
you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me. Was that servant two counties
over? No, he was there with his master, wasn't he? And I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them
me is greater than all. And no man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. And he says, I and my father
are one. And the Jews took up stone to
stone him. That was complete submission to the Father. Wasn't
it? Now, the gods manifest in the
flesh, this is a great mystery. People make it too simple. I
want to be plain, I want to be clear, but somebody gives them
a Bible, and they say, well, I learned John 3.16, I'm ready
to be a theologian now. And I said, oh, you know about
this? Oh, I know, yeah, I got it. I'm a Christian, I know all
these things. The Lord said, great's the mystery of godliness.
Great Paul said, he saw through a glass darkly. What do you think
we see? A great apostle used more than them all. This is mysterious,
but Christ, on our behalf, fully submitted himself to his Father.
That's what he said from the cross. He said, Father, into
thy hands I commend my spirit. Turn myself over to you lock,
stock, and barrel. In complete humility and at the same time
complete trust. That gives me goosebumps. Doesn't that warm your heart?
Isn't that amazing? For who? The servant that's laid
up sick that's curled up in a fetal position in the corner ain't
even talking. Why hurt them like us? Remember Stephen praying those
words of our King on the cross. And he said, Father, forgive
them. They don't know what they're doing, as they killed him. And Stephen was so good. Oh,
look what great faith he mustered up. That was Christ in Stephen.
The Lord said, I'll put my spirit in them and I'll walk in them.
And if you've ever done something good, somebody says, that was
good. That wasn't me, that was Christ doing it in me, wasn't
it? Do we say those things or do we say what good things we
did? What's the reaction of the Father
to Christ's prayer for our intercession? He said, Now my soul is troubled.
What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this
hour I came. Here's the very cause I came. He said, Father, glorify thy
name. Then there came a voice from
heaven saying, I have both glorified it and I will glorify it again.
When did he glorify it again? He said in John 17, I have glorified
thee on earth, I have finished the work thou gavest me to do,
and now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with
the glory which I had before the world was. The Father heard him. Didn't
I? Now this centurion is a picture
of Christ and our Lord there being a picture of the Father.
What's the result of Christ's intercession for his people?
Look at verse 8. For I also am a man under authority, having
under me soldiers, and I say to one, go, go, and he goeth,
and to another, come, and he cometh, and to my servant do
this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard these things,
he marveled at him, and turned about and said unto the people
that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great
faith, no, not in Israel. This is the best faith I've seen.
The Lord marveled. The Lord marveled. Well done,
thou good and faithful servant. Wonderful. Is that because of
us? No, that's because of the servant. The faithful one. That's because of Him. And us
in Him. The Father looks at those people in Him and says, come
home. Wonderful. Glad to have you. Look what a
great job they've done. Because he sees his son, doesn't
he? And here Christ says of this centurion, I say unto you, I
have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And they that
were sent, returning to the house, found a servant whole that had
been sick. What's the end state of all this?
This unnamed servant that ain't done anything, didn't even say
a word, has been made whole. because of that great captain's
intercession, and his faith, and his love, and his building
of the church, and all those things, and the father's happy
with it, and he marvels, this is just fabulous. Because the father's pleased
in the son, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. Then he
gave a command to those people that are his, hear him, hear
him. In Christ, that's conditional
love. There's no such thing as unconditional love. The Lord
loves us because Christ is lovely. He's worthy. And he just said,
great God, great God. And we're healed because of that.
The dead are healed. Gave life. What a thought, huh?
Now, we've learned a lot from that centurion too, can't we?
If we see Christ in that, well now we've got the motivation
to do it. I want to be taught. Do you want to be taught? I want
to be taught of God. I want you to be taught of God
too. Let's pray together.